The Supreme Court has said that the customers cannot be differentiated on the basis of call origination as private telecom service providers have been charging higher for calls to BSNL, MTNL subscribers in states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had asked private mobile service providers in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh not to charge differential tariffs for calls terminating in BSNL network and other service providers networks.
“Calls between Mumbai Metro and Maharashtra Telecom Circle, Chennai Metro and Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle, Kolkata Metro and West Bengal Telecom Circle and UP (East) and UP (West) Telecom Circle Service Areas were treated as intra-service area calls for the purpose of call routing and levy of ADC, according to a report.
“TRAI also received complaints from subscribers regarding the differential higher tariffs being levied by private mobile operators for calls terminating in BSNL/MTNL network,” it said.
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However, in case of BSNL/MTNL, because of the lack of direct connectivity, calls are carried from their network to the BSNL/MTNL network through NLDO in which case additional carriage charge is paid to the NLDO and the tariff for calls terminating in BSNL/MTNL network are being charged at a higher rate compared to calls terminating in the network of private mobile operators. Now, they will have to cough up more money. Telcos have lost the differential tariff case dating back to 2008.
