Friday, February 4 2005 14:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Feb 04, 2005) issued notice to basic telecom operators on a petition filed by BSNL challenging TDSAT (Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) order asking it to extend the concessional alternate tariff package, offered by it to its customers, to the subscribers of other service providers.

BSNL questioned the TDSAT order on the ground whether the State-run telecom operator was obliged to extend benefits/reduction in tariffs for its own subscribers, to other competing operators for the purpose of calculating the interconnection charges payable by the basic telecom operators to BSNL on account of carriage of their calls on its network.

The benefit of concessional tariffs, which is actually intended for BSNL customers for a limited distance of 50-200 kms gets extended to customers of private operators for larger distances beyond 200 kms.

BSNL had filed for concessional tariffs (for its subscribers) in 2001 to be implemented with effect from January 26, 2001, but TDSAT had asked BSNL to extend similar concessions to customers of other service providers on the representation of private basic and cellular operators.

The customer is not aware of the actual amount paid by the private operator to BSNL as access charge and the private operator could easily misuse the TDSAT order.

This could lead to undue enrichment of private operators at the cost of BSNL.