Even before the government could install a system of uniform calling rates throughout the country, private operators have cut long-distance calling rates to Re 1 or less.At these prices, operators like Hutch, Idea and Reliance offer domestic long-distance tariffs that IndiaOne would have targeted — between 75 paise and Re 1 per minute in several circles. Bharti and BSNL, the biggest mobile operators, have little option but to follow suit, queering the IndiaOne pitch.Also in the offing are the telecom regulator TRAI’s next phase of reduction in Access Deficit Charges (ADC). With ADC lowered, private operators say their prices will drop further. The only hurdle to this is state-owned BSNL, which fears a loss of roughly Rs 4,500 crore if ADC is wiped out.BSNL, which admits that IndiaOne will be good for customers but bad for its operations, says such losses are untenable. While the operators, public or private, have always been proved wrong on the possibility to reduce tariffs further, there is precious little on the mega-scheme coming out of the Department of Telecom (DoT) to clear the air.In the meantime, even if the government does enforce a drastic tariff cut, nothing can stop operators from hiking rentals, or other fixed monthly charges to combat the effect of OneIndia. The recent rate cuts by Hutch and Idea have seen rentals jump by Rs 25-30 every month.All said, the IndiaOne rollout can still be expected to happen within January, though, indications are, the cellular operator’s suggestion — to branch IndiaOne tariffs into two streams — will have to be accepted.Even this, however, has not been cleared by the government yet, leaving operators to wonder if the current local call charges will be applied to all-India calling charges, or the current long-distance tariffs will be the benchmark.In either situation, the rural tariffs (particularly landlines provided largely by BSNL) are likely to go up by at least 50 per cent. BSNL — with a 99 per cent share — will have to face these losses.In all this, private sector enthusiasts have found a way out. ‘‘The government should remove ADC and the private sector will automatically cross over to IndiaOne. Besides, a bulk of the 200-250 million phone target is to be met by mobiles, which all operators can provide,’’ say private sector players, who have latched on to the scheme as a final opportunity to release Rs 5,000 crore from the incumbent operator.In the meantime, the industry is also touting the government’s efforts to tackle the urban-rural teledensity divide by encouraging private sector participation. In the offing is a system where USO funds are given out to private players to run rural telephony — possibly even mobile telephony in rural areas.In fact, Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s OneIndia plans are aimed less at troubling BSNL over ADC and more at increasing telecom penetration and usage in the country. The government’s target is to achieve 75 per cent mobile coverage by the end of 2006, to meet which, the difficult political decision — letting rural landlines get more expensive — will at least have to be toyed with.
