Countering the cellular lobby's onslaught on the issue of wireless in local loop (WLL) limited mobility and level-playing field, private basic operators, including Tata and Reliance, today said they would soon approach the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) seeking the removal of access charges for calls from WLL subscribers.
The basic operators also said a level-playing field was more important for them than the cellular industry.
Warning that Trai's attempts to equate limited mobility services with cellular services in terms of access charges might result in WLL services becoming less affordable for customers, the Association of Basic Telecom Operators said it would explore all available options to safeguard the interests of basic players.
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"Trai, through its recent tariff amendment, has addressed the cellular sector's concerns to the detriment of basic service operators. The interconnect charge introduced by Trai for WLL services will result in pushing up costs for the customer," said S Ramakrishnan, managing director of Tata Teleservices and the newly elected president of ABTO.
Trai had recently said WLL users would have to pay 30 paise per minute for making a call to a cellular subscriber in metros and 40 paise per minute to a user in the non-metro cities.
Ramakrishnan, who has taken over as the ABTO president from Rajiv Mehrotra, said the cost of operations would increase as a result of the access charges.
"Whether this cost is absorbed or passed on to consumers, the individual operators will have to decide. Some may decide to pass it on, while others may absorb it," he said.
Prakash C Bajpai, president, Reliance Infocomm, has been elected as the vice-president of ABTO.
ABTO said if WLL and cellular services were equated, the obligations of rollout and universal services, which come as a part of the basic services licence, should also not be applicable to WLL services.
Trai not to review tariffs
Trai has virtually ruled out reviewing the telecom tariffs announced by it last week, even as some operators are planning to approach it to express their concerns over the new price norms, reports the Press Trust of India.
Trai Chairman M S Verma said,