Lines restored, govt disconnected

It brought back memories of the old days when there was only one operator — Government-owned MTNL — and subscribers had to virtually pray that their phone didn’t go dead. Consumer organisations, industrial bodies and political parties are upset over the manner in which the snapping of links took place.

In fact, prominent consumer body India CARE Foundation has dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, seeking his intervention to declare telephone services as essential services and take strict action against anybody blocking free movement of traffic.

It has threatened to move courts if action is not taken against private cellphone operators as well as public sector operators stalling links.

Telecom Watchdog, another consumer body, has also called for a detailed inquiry into the issue and demanded that the guilty should be brought to book to ensure that such a thing did not happen again.

Supreme Court lawyer Rajeev Dhawan feels consumers can get justice from the courts: ‘‘Companies, both government-owned and private, cannot be allowed to get away with what has happened over the past few days. The consumer has been the last person on their minds during this slugfest. The private companies have become a law unto themselves and it is common in international jurisprudence to give compensation for any breach of service conditions the like of which has happened over the past two days.’’

Said an irate cellphone user, Narendra Nath: ‘‘We send our children to school and give the authorities there our mobile numbers to reach us in case of an emergency. What if their safety is at stake? Who will pay for the mental agony?’’

‘‘This is extremely unfair, especially when the phones have become a virtual lifeline for the common man,’’ agreed the principal of Springdales School in the capital. ‘‘ How can you take away a service once you have provided consumers with one? What can the consumer do except be a victim of all this politics? It is very wrong.’’

‘‘The entire situation is very unfortunate,’’ said Tarun Das, CII Director General. ‘‘There is need for an intensive and continuous dialogue between all the concerned parties to arrive at a mutually beneficial interconnection regime. The CII is now close to bringing out a ‘termination-based’ interconnect agreement and the operators on either side should wait for this. Till such time all interconnection links should be restored between cellphone operators, WLL operators and the public sector MTNL/BSNL.’’ Das is a director on the board of public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

Political parties were not far behind in their criticism. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, chief whip of the Congress, said: ‘‘This shows a complete failure of the Government in reacting to a crisis in the telecom sector which has put lakhs of consumers in distress. There should be an investigation on MTNL’s failure in addressing the problems and action should be taken against the top brass which failed to give any reasons for the collapse in links and inconvenience caused.’’

Dasmunshi, also a member of the Consultative Committee of the Communications Ministry, said that while his party was all for public sector organisations, in telecom the Government has taken a decision to allow private participation.

‘‘Given this, allowing MTNL to disrupt services against private operators is unfair, unjust and illegal,’’ he said.

Speaking to The Indian Express from Kolkata, senior CPI(M) leader and chairman of the parliamentary standing committee for communications Somnath Chatterjee said: ‘‘We have called MTNL, BSNL and the communications ministry to a meeting on January 23. We want to know from them what is their plan for the future of telecommunications facilities in the country. Government should not be party to any sectional interests in the sector. We had indicated in our earlier reports that there should be a transparent resolution to these interconnection issues without holding customers to ransom.’’

Chatterjee also had a reprimand for the TRAI: ‘‘It is a quasi-judicial body; how can it issue open letters on its website in response to private companies’ letters in the press?”

The cellular operators are now expected to meet Pramod Mahajan on his return from a week-long visit to Egypt and South Africa. The issue of interconnection between cellphone operators and basic players offering WLL-based limited mobile services is coming up for a hearing at the telecom tribunal, TDSAT, tomorrow.

Cell operators will also appear before the TRAI, responding to its directive on the interconnect deadline given in the showcause notice which expires tommorow morning. They have so far not complied with the order to interconnect with WLL mobile operators.

Cellphone companies are demanding that they be paid Rs 1.20 for calls coming from WLL and fixed-line networks. A peace formula could be in the offing — WLL and fixed-line operators have offered to pay 38 paise per minute or Rs 1.14 for a three-minute call.