Vodafone questions 'new operator asymmetries'

Vodafone Essar on Monday wrote a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) asking it to remove issues pertaining to ‘new operator asymmetries’, in the consultation paper released on interconnection usage charges (IUC) between telecom operators.

Last month, the regulator had released a paper asking stakeholder comments on the review of IUC regime. The paper has also become a point of controversy, as there are proposals to end IUC charges, which are paid by an operator to another for using the latter’s network. As per the current regulation, if a customer makes a call to the customer of another operator, the first operator should pay 20 paise per minute to the latter, calling it mobile termination charge.

While a number of new operators which received licences in 2008 are seeking an end to these charges, the established operators are for it. The second largest telecom company in revenue said Trai’s number of issues mentioned in the paper are in contrast to a judgement given by Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), in September last year.

The company quoted a part of its judgement in the letter, which said Trai had no jurisdiction to establish cross-subsidy between competitors.

“A cross subsidy in a wholesale market vis-a-vis a retail market will otherwise be difficult to recover having regard to ground realities and market forces. There does not exist any logic of alternating network to subsidise the call originating network,” said the TDSAT order.

Vodafone also said, according to the judgement, Trai should determine IUC charges on cost-based principle. “This will be tantamount to seeking responses in the vacuum which will render the consultation process meaningless,” Vodafone said in the letter.