Give access to rivals, Trai tells cell operators

Amid trading of charges over interconnection between Tata Indicom and Bharti Cellular, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India directed all the players to provide access to each other's network to avoid disruption of services.

"We have received some consumer complaints pertaining to non-completion of calls originating from Tata Indicom to be terminated on Bharti Cellular and we found that the reason for non-completion of calls was non-opening of the code allotted to a service provider by other service provider," Trai said in a directive.

It was brought to the notice of Trai that after the mobile switching centre (MSC) codes are allotted to a service provider, other service providers do not open these codes quickly in their networks.

To ensure compliance of terms and conditions of licence and effective interconnection between service providers and to protect consumer interest, Trai has directed all service providers that when the codes are allotted by the Department of Telecommunications to a service provider, these codes should be opened immediately. The codes are to be opened within 10 days by all interconnected service providers.

Non-opening of these codes by other service providers, results in non-completion of calls, which causes disruption of service, inconvenience to the subscribers of both the interconnecting operators, and deterioration in the quality of service provided by the service providers.

This is against the interest of the consumers and service providers, Trai said. All the service providers were asked to report compliance within a week.