GSM body objects to Trai notice on congestion

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing all GSM-based mobile service providers, today slammed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for issuing showcause notice to mobile operators for network congestion, and said that this was an attempt by Trai to hide its failures.

"It is a matter of grave concern to us that having been unsuccessful in its attempts, Trai is now seeking to shift the blame on cellular operators by alleging that they are not taking effective steps through negotiations or through legal action to bring down the time period in the interconnection agreement. This shifting of blame on the private players, apart from being incorrect, also loses sight of the ground reality. We believe that Trai, by issuing the above show cause notices, is not only accusing the wrong party, but is in fact blaming the victim for his desperate condition," the COAI said in its letter to Trai.

Last week, Trai had issued show cause notices to six mobile service providers - Bharti, Reliance Infocomm, Relaince Telecom, BPL Mobile and Spice Communication.

Trai had also said the congestion levels in the networks of these operators had increased despite its directions to comply with the quality of service parameters, including the level of point of interconnect (PoI) congestion by December 31, 2005.

The COAI has also pointed out that virtually 90 per cent of the bottleneck facilities were with one dominant player (BSNL).

It was, therefore, unrealistic to expect that the new entrants would be able to address this problem overnight through negotiations, it said.

"It is also a fact that under the interconnection agreements that have been signed by private operators, it could take up to 12 months for new PoIs to be provided. We are sure that Trai understands the legal implications in this regard. Furthermore, the authority is also aware of the fact that it may take 2-3 years or more for any legal dispute to be finally settled after exhausting all levels of appeal," the association added.

The GSM lobby also added that under these circumstances, operators "were unable to agree with the Trai's view that it is the responsibility of the service provider to take necessary action for timely augmentation of POIs through mutual discussions or through legal measures."

"We are sure that it is not the case of Trai that the operators should stop providing new connections till the PoIs are augmented," the letter said.

According to the body, it had been undertaking all possible efforts, including meetings held at the highest level to ensure that operators are able to get timely augmentation of POIs.

COAI has also added that the period of 10 days provided by the Trai to respond to the notice was extremely short to respond in an effective manner, and has sought an opportunity of personal hearing to explain its stand on the issue.