Scrapping National Long Distance Call

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See this link....It might affect present ADC regime also..

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.a...scat=Technology

CHENNAI: Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran has said that the Center was working towards freeing the entire country from the present STD (national long distance) system.

Maran said after correcting the telecom imbalance in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharastra and Uttar Pradesh, his Ministry's next move was to do away with the STD system in the country as a whole.

''The day is not far off when STD system is dispensed in the country,'' Maran said, adding that efforts were also being made to rope in more customers and enhance the tele-density in the country to 10:5 by 2009.

''I want to make local call facility right from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and increase the tele-density to 10:2 in 2007 and 10:5 in another two years,'' he said. The Telecom Department could get the patronage of the customers only if the rates were made competitive, he added.

Presently, there were 100 million telephone users in the country and the tele-density stood at 10:1, compared to 10:5 in China. ''My department has chalked out plans to enhance the customer base from the existing 100 million to 250 million in the next three years.''

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Hope it all works as per his plan!!!

[kawalghai_chd 0]

The Department of Telecom (DoT) on Tuesday started consultation process with private telecom service providers on the proposed uniform call rates for the country, christened ‘OneIndia’.

According to sources, cellular operators welcomed the concept while proposing that long distance service providers like Bharti and Reliance, which have paid hefty entry and licence fee for STD licence, should be compensated.

At the meeting chaired by JS Sarma, chairman of telecom commission, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the concept would be useful only if inter-circle STD calls were allowed to operators.

At present there are four STD operators — Bharti, Reliance, BSNL and VSNL, who carry the long distance traffic of the rest of the service providers and levy carriage charges of Rs 1.10 per minute, besides 30 paise each towards termination and access deficit charge.

When contacted, COAI director general TV Ramachandran said the meeting was fruitful as most the operators were able to give their views and hope to see the policy taking off soon.

[Arun 795]

Maran, TRAI chief fight over ADC

SANJAY ANAND

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2005 01:22:55 AM ]

NEW DELHI: Who should get the credit for slashing telecom tariffs, ramping up subscribers and keeping rural telephony affordable? This is at the heart of the current clash between communications minister Dayanidhi Maran and telecom regulator Trai chairman Pradeep Baijal.

The clash has come in the form a politically controversial issue called ADC (access deficit charge), which we pay through phone companies for telecom PSU BSNL so that it can provide connections in villages at low monthly rentals.

ADC, introduced a few years ago and estimated to be around Rs 5,000 crore, is under Trai's jurisdiction and is revised annually. This year, Trai is expected to announce the new ADC estimate in September, and it could be halved to Rs 2,500, leading to a big reduction in STD rates.

But communications ministry is expected to bring out a directive that will make ADC a policy matter, stripping Trai of its powers on the subject. The ministry has informed the PMO about its intent, resulting in disaffection between Maran and Baijal.

Actually, Maran wants to introduce ‘One India' plan, under which there will be a lower flat STD rate for calls across the country. He wants to make it a part of the new telecom policy (NTP 2005), which is due later this year, covering issues like spectrum allocation, 3G (third generation services) and, possibly, ADC.

With few months left for Baijal's term to end, the ministry wants to avoid a big public spat. "Point is simple, ADC is a policy matter. It should not be made into a battle of life and death," said an official.

ADC has been tied to STD tariffs. It was introduced a few years ago after long distance (STD/ISD) rates were slashed drastically (from Rs 24 a minute for a Delhi-Mumbai call, to about Rs 4 now) because of private competition. Earlier, BSNL used to make huge profits from long distance calls and, from those big margins, provide phones at very low rentals and local call charges, especially in smaller towns and villages. With that gone, BSNL had only two choices: Either hike rural rentals and call charges to the limit or get the ‘deficit' amount for providing phones to ‘the poor'.

Last time Trai tried to reduce ADC, BSNL whipped up enough political hysteria to get Bajial nearly removed as Trai chairman. Trai was criticised for not taking action against Reliance, for causing BSNL a loss of hundreds of crores in ADC payments by illegally passing of international calls as local ones. International calls attract higher ADC payments.

Recently, the ministry has been unhappy with Trai for failing to nail Tatas for not reducing international bandwidth rates, and ‘letting them' win a case in telecom tribunal by goofing up on technical grounds.