The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has stepped in the fight between the GSM operators and Reliance Communications Ltd (Rcomm), wherein the former are not willing to open the new number series of ?90? for Rcomm?s upcoming GSM services on the grounds that it should sign new interconnect agreements with them as a GSM operator. The regulator has asked the GSM operators to open the line for Rcomm and send a compliance report to it within the next seven days.
Following up on an FE report appearing on Monday about the fight, Trai, in a letter to GSM operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BSNL, Spice and Idea Cellular, said that non-compliance of the said direction would entail initiating action as stipulated in the Trai Act.
Trai said that, vide its letter dated July 14, it ?had issued clarification regarding opening of MSC codes allocated by the department of telecommunications (DoT) subsequent to amendments in UASL conditions allowing use of both GSM and CDMA technology. The Authority had clarified that existing point of interconnection (PoI) need to be used for exchange of traffic for networks established as a result of permission for use of both CDMA and GSM technologies?.
The Trai letter states, ?it has been brought to the notice of Trai that despite the clarification, (the said operator) has not yet opened the codes allocated to Rcomm for their mobile services through GSM technology?.
As reported by Fe, Rcomm has maintained that its GSM licence is not a new one so its existing CDMA interconnect pact should be recognized and the operators should provide it interconnectivity.
The stand of the GSM operators has been that by not agreeing to sign new interconnect pacts with them, Rcomm is trying to save on costs plus trying to get a headstart over other new licencees like Unitech, Videocon-led Datacom, etc.
These new operators, who have got new licences along with spectrum and plan to roll out services would have to enter into interconnect pacts with the existing operators.