| Reliance Infocomm today sent its reply to the department of telecommunications (DoT), which had issued a notice to the company saying it was violating the licence norms by routing international incoming calls as local calls. | |
| Confirming that development, DoT Secretary Nripendra Misra said, "We are studying their reply and the future course of action will be decided in a few days." When contacted, a Reliance spokesperson refused to comment on the matter. | |
| The DoT had given a deadline of 15 days till today to the private telecom operator to explain its position. | |
| Last week, Reliance Infocomm had paid Rs 58 crore to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd as an "interim arrangement" to avoid disconnection of points of interconnection in certain circles. | |
| BSNL had issued notices on 111 locations and also sent a bill of Rs 58 crore as compensation for access deficit charges and other charges. | |
| The state-owned telecom service provider was also analysing the call data at other locations and said that total the bill could go up to Rs 120 crore. | |
| Misra had recently said that Reliance Infocomm might have to pay a fine of up to Rs 50 crore per circle if it was found to have violated the terms of the licence. | |
| The state-owned company had alleged that Reliance was terminating international calls to BSNL's network and treating them as local calls. | |
| It had also said that every such call had resulted in a loss of Rs 4.80 a minute, which it would have received as access deficit charges (ADC) and termination charges. | |
| As per the present rules, BSNL is entitled to an ADC ranging between 30 paise and Rs 4.25 per minute from private operators to compensate it for rural operations.
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Reliance replies to DoT
Dot to decide on action over routing international calls
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First Published: Oct 21 2004 | 12:00 AM IST
