KOLKATA: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will function as an interconnect exchange to improve connectivity between various telecom operators and reduce congestion.

A national level ombudsman will be created by private operators in the telecom sector to address complaints from consumers.

This was announced by Nripendra Mishra, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), at a meeting organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Friday. "We will talk to BSNL about its role as an interconnect exchange as the company has exchanges throughout the country. It can charge for the services provided,'' he said.

The ombudsman would be an eminent person with requisite knowledge in the field and the operators had agreed to abide by what he might have to say, he said. Mr. Mishra said the only way of dealing with the paucity of spectrum that might arise due to third generation mobile telephony, which combined voice, data and entertainment, was to adopt new technologies like WiMAX and Wi-Fi. The recommendations in this regard would be forwarded to the Centre by September. He attributed the deterioration in the quality of calls to the fact that telecom infrastructure had not grown at the same pace as the growth in the subscriber base.

Mr. Mishra also spoke of the need for developing and adopting new technologies to bridge the urban-rural divide in mobile telephony, as tele-density in rural areas was only four per cent, compared to 37 per cent in urban areas. On convergence, he said the rules related to carriage must be worked out together so that the different technologies complemented instead of encroaching each other.

Mr. Mishra said TRAI had contributed to the creation of a level playing field by adopting the principles of fair play, predictability and a neutral approach to technology.

He reminded the audience that call charges had declined across the entire spectrum of services and that mobile call charges in India were now the lowest in the world.

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