The Government has issued an advisory to mobile operator Bharti Airtel to document properly all its telecom connections, including broadband.
"You are advised to ensure that all broadband connections provided by Bharti Airtel with static IPs (Internet Protocols) are MRTG-enabled for effective monitoring of their bonafide use and telecom resources are not provided to any call centre without seeking valid registration paper from (the) DoT," said the department.
The Mail Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) is a tool to monitor the traffic load on networks.
The Department of Telecom's vigilance cell -- Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring -- recently unearthed an illegal call centre in Lucknow using Bharti Airtel's telecom resources. Airtel said it has taken prompt action in disconnecting the company's link.
"As a responsible company, we are committed to the highest standards of regulatory compliance. In this case, the customer who had taken an individual connection from us was misusing the same to operate an illegal call centre. Upon receipt of the complaint, Bharti Airtel promptly disconnected the landline and broadband connections as advised by Term Cell of (the) DoT," said a company spokesperson.
During the inspection of the site, officials of the TERM Cell discovered Axiom Solutions had been doing the operations of an internatonal call centre, making outbound calls since November 2008.
After it was found that the centre was using Bharti Airtel's telecom and broadband connections, when the DoT asked the mobile operator to furnish the mandatory registration papers of the call centres (with DoT) before connections were given, Bharti Airtel was unable to produce them.
"It was observed that Bharti Airtel had provided broadband connections with static IP to the firm at International Call Centre site without seeking valid registration papers issued from DoT and thus violated the Department's earlier instructions issued in this regard", the DoT said.
The DoT's licence mandates operators to keep records of their connections and check DoT registration papers of call centres and other service providers before providing communication links to facilitate monitoring. Violation can attract penalty, the licence says.
