Telecom cos cry 145;Wrong No.146; on billing reforms

The telecom industry is opposed to changes in the billing system that could force them to not charge for an undelivered SMS and short durati...

The telecom industry is opposed to changes in the billing system that could force them to not charge for an undelivered SMS and short duration calls that last for 3 to 5 seconds. A majority of operators are also for a regime of 8216;8216;self-testing and reporting,8217;8217; instead of a system where metering and billing is regulated by a new benchmarking system and code of practise.

While there8217;s unanimous disapproval by industry on not charging for undelivered SMS 8212; one sent, for instance, to a landline number 8212; Tata Tele and BSNL alone have accepted the regulator8217;s suggestions on a new metering and billing benchmarking system.

All, except NGOs and consumer bodies Trai has consulted with, are opposed to making short calls free.

Trai had recently launched a consultation process to get the views of industry stakeholders on billing-related issues, including audits. The proposal was to make such audits a regular feature, but which would require a sound funding mechanism.

In response, the top association of cellular players, COAI, has suggested that such audits should be conducted in a year by TRAI. 8216;8216;No additional burden should be imposed on operators,8217;8217; it has said in response to Trai8217;s paper. AUSPI, the association of unified service providers has similarly said that self-testing regime will make the need for billing audits irrelavant.

MTNL has acceted a billing audit 8216;8216;at regular intervals,8217;8217; but it believes these audits 8216;8216;may be part of internal control system and regularly audited along with other aspects of the company.8217;8217; Interestingly, BSNL has proposed that a part of the licence fees being paid by operators may be 8216;8216;apportioned for funding billing audit.8217;8217;

Reliance, echoing the demands of other operators, has said the mechanism of network audits for the Quality of Service QoS survey conducted by the regulator should be continued.

Telcos8217; stance

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8226; SMS has to be stored before delivery, there is no SMS termination charge, SMS delivery failure not operator8217;s fault.

8226; Can8217;t split SMS charge into two because network keeps attempting to send SMS even if it eventually fails.

8226; Rampant misuse if all 3-5 second calls will be free, even a split-second call uses operator network, some tariff plans a per-second based 8211; so every second counts.