Utilize ILD move to address pending telecom issues: CII

NEW DELHI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) welcomed the

government's decision to open up International Long Distance (ILD) services. It

said, "The move is highly commendable as for the first time in the telecom

sector a road map for the opening up of a service has been announced prior to

its actual the date of opening up, in this case April 2002."

The CII also felt that this presented an opportunity for the government to

address issues relating to all inter-connection issues, domestic long distance

services, and inter-connectivity between operators and other service providers.

According to the industry body, with the announcement of the proposed entry

fees and conditions for ILD, there was an opportunity to address the entry

conditions for Domestic Long Distance services.

"It is important that the government does so immediately as currently

there are no existing National Long Distance Operators and therefore, it will be

easier to make changes now rather than post awarding of licenses," the CII

stated.

A related issue was allowing existing operators to inter-connect at the

borders of circles for carrying their own traffic and even this issue could be

resolved during such discussions, the CII felt.

The third related issue was the entire inter-connection regime that would

form the corner stone of the ability of the Indian telecom sector to achieve the

desired telecom density. CII believes that there should be a uniform cost based

inter-connect regime across different segments.

While finalizing the license agreement for the ILD, the government should

call a meeting of the interested parties in the National Long Distance sector,

the current operators, both cellular and basic, as also ISPs including BSNL and

potential ILD players including VSNL, the CII members said.

In the long-term interest of the entire telecom sector, the present

opportunity should be utilized for it to become the first step in a series of

actions to address the growth and development of the Indian telecom sector, the

CII stated.