Tele-mktg calls clog networks: Mittal

It is not just subscribers who are irked by tele-marketing calls, but service providers like Bharti are also complaining that their networks get overloaded due to such calls.

"We are facing problem of congestion on our mobile network as majority of the tele-marketing calls originate from fixed line phones," Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said today.

"Except for 30 paise per minute of termination charges, Bharti does not gain anything," Mittal added.

He admitted that congestion of network in calls made from Airtel numbers to BSNL was due to overloading of the points of interconnect and paucity of spectrum. "Once spectrum increases, congestion and call dropping would end," he added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said yesterday that the government is considering releasing more spectrum for telecom service providers.