BSNL plea on call revenue rejected

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has suffered a setback with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) rejecting its plea for additional revenue from incoming national and international roaming calls of subscribers belonging to private telecom operators.

BSNL had demanded a 50 per cent share saying these calls were using its network but were terminating on the network of the private companies. It had entered into interconnect agreements with other operators and was charging for it.

However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), after receiving complaints from private operators, had on September 11, 2006, fixed the revenue share among operators at 30 paise per minute. This prompted BSNL to approach the tribunal.

"We are unable to accept the manner in which BSNL has tried to introduce revenue sharing in the mutually arrived interconnect agreement," said the TDSAT.

The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) also filed a petition in the same matter seeking refund of the extra amount charged by BSNL after Trai's decision. They alleged that BSNL forced them to enter into such interconnect agreements.

On this allegation, the TDSAT said, "BSNL, being a government undertaking, should have displayed a fair and honest conduct and such crucial clause ought to have found place on the main body of the agreement."

"Revenue sharing is a fundamental issue for both the parties and has significant financial repercussion. It should have formed part of the main agreement," it said.

BSNL said the telecom companies were themselves charging Rs 3-5 for national roaming and Rs 100 for international roaming. Since BSNL's network was being used, it should get a share in the additional money earned by the private operators, the PSU said. However, the tribunal rejected this argument and said whatever amount was being charged from the subscribers was the prerogative of the private operators. "BSNL does not automatically get the right to share this revenue of private operators. No rules and regulation permit this type of sharing," it said.

The tribunal also rejected BSNL's contention that Trai neither had the right to supervise the mutual agreement between the two players nor the right to fix revenue share. "What Trai did was part of its normal procedure in discharge of its function. Trai has discharged as the statue mandates it do so," said the tribunal.