Trai seeks to calculate liability of carriage charge on telcos

Telecom Regulator Trai today floated tender to appoint an agency for calculating liability of transit carriage charges on individual operators, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

Last date for submission of technical proposals for this tender is March 4, following which financial bids will be opened for participants who qualify.

The Supreme Court, on August 30, 2010, had asked Trai to fix liability on individual telecom service providers.

Trai had challenged telecom tribunal TDSAT's ruling which upheld state-owned BSNL's view that transit carriage charges (TCC) should be calculated on call distance and not on per minute basis.

TCC is part of the network Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC). An operator, from where the call originates, has to pay IUC to another service provider on whose network calls end.

TCC is paid to an operator who is used in between these two end points to transmit phone calls.

At present, a telecom area is defined in three major parts: Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA), which is smaller than a district, Long Distance Charging Area (LDCA), which is equivalent to size of a district and telecom circle which is generally equivalent to size of a state.

As per the regulation, a service provider can't take a call directly to SDCA level. An operator can only take calls up to Level 2 TAX exchange of BSNL which falls under LDCA.

From this exchange, telephone calls are routed to SDCA level to reach end consumer. A service provider has to pay 15 paisa per minute for this part of transmitting calls.

The Supreme Court has asked Trai to fix TCC liability of individual service providers by analysing call data records.

Following this order, Trai is required to collect call data records and compute TCC liability on each operator, which is a massive exercise.

The agency to be appointed by Trai will be required to keep these records till the case is completed.