Cellular Firms Not To Press For Compensation
The Cellular Operators Associ- ation of India (COAI) have decided not to press for compensation from the Union government for losses incurred in the three months after the department of telecommunications introduced the fixed-to-cellular tariffs on February 15 this year.
The companies which hold licences in the circles have claimed that there was a drop of 60 per cent in fixed-to-cellular calls after the DoT tariff was introduced.
The department move increased the tariff from Rs 1.25 per three-minute call to about Rs 28. Since 40-50 per cent revenues of cellular companies come from fixed-to-cellular calls (which they bill) in the initial years, the drop in the number of such calls adversely impacted their bottomlines, the operators claimed.
Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yesterday allowed the COAI to withdraw a petition against delays by DoT in implementing a order by the regulator quashing its fixed-to-cellular tariffs.
The association had filed the petition on May 8, a week after the May 1 deadline that TRAI had set for the department to roll back the contentious tariff.
However, after DoT finally implemented the regulators order on May 14, COAI executives said they would withdraw the petition.
The counsel for the operators sought withdrawal of the petition in view of DoT having implemented the order by withdrawing the tariff hike and also directing its chief general managers in all telecom circles to provide any number of points of interconnect and multiple gateway mobile switching centres, as per the April 25 order of the TRAI.
Hearing the case yesterday, TRAI vice-chairman B K Zutshi and member-secretary N S Ramachandran advised DoT and the cellular operators to bilaterally resolve problems.
The authority advised cellular operators and DoT officials to get together and resolve any problem that may remain in the implementation of the the April 25th order.
It suggested to the public and private telecom players to establish some mechanism for consultations to remove the difficulties in their day-to-day working relationship, PTI reports.
The authority promised to always be available for any assistance to the parties in resolving issues even outside its (the authoritys) strictly adjudicatory responsibility.