Bharti Airtel, the country?s largest wireless operator, has indicated that it will move the appellate telecom tribunal if any telecom operator refuses to pay it SMS termination charges. The move follows a recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India directive asking Bharti and Idea Cellular not to levy ?discriminatory? charges on operators.
The company, which has sent its response to Trai, maintains that it charges a uniform rate from all operators for SMSes terminating on its network. It said that it continues to charge the same uniform rate for every operator as before. If any operator refuses to pay, it will take the matter to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, the company warned.
A Bharti official rejected the charge of discriminatory rates. The official said that except for one service provider, the company has entered into agreements with everyone else at the same price. ?If the said company does not conclude an agreement with us, we have no option but to move TDSAT to seek legal recourse,? the official said. ?Currently, we charge a 10 paisa termination charge on an SMS from all other networks. This is a common industry practice and all operators are charging similar rates for SMSs which come from networks other than theirs?, the official said.
The episode is the second in a series of differences between the old guard and the new operators in telecom space. Earlier, the two have differed over the recent 2G spectrum pricing recommendations made by the telecom regulator. The problem began with some operators complaining to Trai that Bharti and Idea were discriminatory in levying SMS termination charges, meaning that while they were charging such charges from new operators, the older ones were spared. Since the new operators have far fewer subscribers, a levy of termination charge on SMS would mean that they would pay more to an incumbent operator.
Following the complaint, the regulator asked Bharti and Idea to stop this practice. ?Telecommunication Interconnection Usage Charges, Tenth Amendment Regulations, 2009 provides that IUC for SMS shall be under forbearance, provided that such charges shall be transparent, reciprocal and non-discriminatory….?Bharti Airtel has concluded agreements with some service providers specifying IUC for SMS. In respect of the rest, they are still in process of entering into similar agreements that has resulted in a situation wherein the charge being actually applied is different for different service providers,? Trai said in its notice to Bharti Airtel on February 22. An Idea Cellular spokesperson did not respond to a question on their stand on the Trai notice. Older operators like Bharti defend termination charges on the grounds that newer operators send bulk commercial messages to subscribers, clogging their network and leading to delays in delivery of calls and other messages.