RCom protests BSNL breach in Punjab, Haryana

Reliance Communications (RCom) has strongly upheld the interests of its customers in a statement issued this week, protesting against Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) breach of interconnect agreement. BSNL disconnected Point of Interconnection (POI) of RCom in Haryana and Punjab in May.

POI facilities are vital to the overall telecom system in the country. It is a system in which a telecom operator provides its network to other telecom operators for routing its calls. For this facility, the operator pays a fee to the other operators.

The continuity of POI forms the basis of interconnect agreements on access deficit charges (ADC) between service providers. This ensures transparency in such deals. The ADC dispute between RCom and BSNL is still pending in the Supreme Court. RCom has been complying with Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal rulings in this matter. In April 2011, BSNL raised fresh ADC-related demands for February-November 2004. BSNL has also raised additional interest invoices from November 2004 to February 2006. The release mentions that disconnecting POI under these circumstances is an effective breach of the existing agreement terms between any two operators.