RComm, Tata Tele make part payment to BSNL for limited mobile svcs

[K.Karthik Raja]

RComm, Tata Tele make part payment to BSNL for limited mobile svcs
Wednesday, May 28
.
NEW DELHI - Reliance Communications Ltd. has paid 3.27 bln rupees
and
Tata Teleservices Ltd. 2.25 bln rupees as access deficit charges to
Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd. following the Supreme Court ruling on Apr 30, a
BSNL
official said today.
The court had directed Reliance Communications to pay 4.34 bln
rupees and
Tata Teleservices 3.75 bln rupees to the state-owned telecom operator.
The payments came as a result of the apex court categorising Tata
Teleservices Ltd.'s 'walky' and Reliance Communications (formerly
Reliance
Infocomm Ltd.) 'unlimited cordless' as limited mobile phone services.
A bench headed by Justice H.S. Kapadia, while dismissing the two
private
operators' petitions, had upheld Telecom Dispute Settlement and
Appellate
Tribunal's order of Sep 2005 that said these services are not fixed
line but
limited mobile services.
ADC is a charge paid by mobile services providers to BSNL for
maintenance
and upgradation of basic telephone lines installed by the state-owned
operator
prior to 2002.
Revenue earned by telecom services providers from their basic
operations
are not factored in while calculating the ADC.
"For the remaining 25% amount (1.07 bln rupees), Reliance
Communications
has approached TDSAT, claiming that BSNL is also liable to pay ADC to
Reliance
for some of its services," the official said.
He said BSNL is ready to pay ADC, provided Reliance Communications
furnished the details of the claims.
BSNL is liable to pay ADC to Reliance Communications on only those
calls,
which were made from its fixed wireless phones to the latter's fixed
lines.
"Reliance's claim will be much smaller than 1.07 bln rupees that
it is
holding back as the company has a very limited fixed line subscriber
base,"
the BSNL official said.
The case, which was heard at TDSAT today, will now be taken up on
Jul 3.
End
.