The Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI) will complete its exercise on introduction of competition in domestic long-distance communication and submit its findings to the government in six to eight weeks.
TRAI chairman S S Sodhi told mediapersons here yesterday that the authority was keen to stick to the January 1, 2000 deadline for opening up national long-distance services to private operators.
"Since the government will require sometime to take decisions on our recommendations, we want to complete our work in six to eight weeks," he said.
The authority yesterday completed the process of public consultations on the proposal by holding the sixth and last open house here and will now consult telecom operators, Planning Commission members, economists and financial institutions before finalising its recommendations.
The last open house was quite "stormy" with representatives from the department of telecommunications, particularly the employees, describing the move as "hasty".
The demand of representatives of basic service providers for provision of not only inter-circle but also intra-circle competition was almost drowned by the vociferous attacks mounted by telecom engineers on the private operators.
The entry of basic service providers into operating STD/ISD booths also came in for criticism with the president of All India PCO Owners Association, G S Reddy maintaining that such entry was "illegal" and operation of cellular phones had cut into their earnings.
The chief general manager of the Andhra Telecom Circle, J Ramanujam said the STD booth programme was started as an employment generation project with an assurance to the unemployed that they would get a minimum income of Rs 2,000 per month. Their problems deserved the attention of the authority.
Sodhi and other members, who were surprised at the turn of events later admitted at a media conference that the open house was "unique to itself".
"The debate turned round `why competition' and this diverted the discussions," TRAI member Ramachandran said.
