Port Rates Cut For Basic Telecom Services

In an effort to break the impasse that has stalled private entry into the field of basic telecom services, the department of telecommunications has slashed interconnect (or port) charges by 43 per cent in a new graded scale offered to basic telecom companies. DoT has reduced port charges from Rs 96,000 to Rs 54,000 per 30-channel link.

A mutually acceptable solution with the companies on contentious issues like assignability, arbitration and payment of licence fees under force majeure conditions has also been worked out, communications minister Beni Prasad Verma said at a press conference here yesterday.

Verma held successive meetings with representatives of cellular and basic telecom companies yesterday. The meetings were convened after the chances of a Rs 3,000-crore licence fee inflow into a government coffers diminished because of the prolonged deadlock in basic telecom services. Verma was optimistic that the licence fees would flow in before the end of the current financial year.

The minister said the DoT brass has been asked to incorporate changes in the licence and interconnect agreements within 48 hours on issues like assignability. He said the agreements would then be given to the companies, after which he expected basic services to start without delay. He refused to set a timeframe but said if the companies did not comply, they would lose our sympathy.

Other measures being put in place include the induction of 13 more officers in the wireless planning and coordination wing of DoT. The department is also contemplating the induction of more deputy director generals (additional secretary-level officers) in the value-added services team, sources said. At present, there is only one DDG who handles all value-added services like cellular services, paging, e-mail, mobile trunked radio and VSAT operators. Verma said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India bill would be introduced in the forthcoming budget session after changes suggested by the standing committee on communications were incorporated. DoT will follow a case-by-case approach on the issue of payment of the second instalment of licence fees by cellular operators, telecom secretary A V Gokak said at the press briefing.

The department has given a 45-day extension to operators for a network rollout. The question of penalties for late payment of licence fees would be decided after this period, he added.

Explaining DoTs approach on the contentious issues, Gokak said the new port charges would be effective for a period of three years with the final say on the matter being vested with TRAI. He said the new charges were based on incremental costs for the provision of such a link.

Assignability, the secretary said, would be worked out on a tripartite basis involving the department, lenders and the licensee. He said force majeure conditions had been defined as war, natural calamities and shutdown of services on orders from regulatory authority.