Private telecom operators barred from carrying intra-circle calls

New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has barred private national long distance operators from carrying intra-circle telephone calls meant for state owned BSNL''s subscribers.

In a directive to private operators, the DoT said that BSNL can continue to exercise monopoly and recover charges from private access providers for carrying the calls within a circle. This will mean that a telephone call made by an Airtel user in any city to a BSNL subscriber in another city will have to necessarily be carried on BSNL''s network.

Private operators, incensed by this order, are now trying to impress upon the Government to withdraw it. They say that BSNL charges 20 paise per minute for carrying intra-circle calls, while NLD operators like Bharti are willing to carry the same traffic for less than 10 paise per minute.

The private players also pointed out that the new direction nullifies the amendment announced by DoT on December 14, 2005, when private NLD operators were allowed to carry and terminate intra-circle traffic.

Private operators said that the earlier amendment would have increased competition and increase choice in the intra circle long distance segment binging affordable services to consumers.

They said subscribers were not able to reap the benefits of this facility as despite the above amendment, this facility was not implemented as BSNL did not allow the private NLDOs to terminate the intra-circle traffic on its network.