The
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked the Supreme Court for a three-month extension to complete formulation of the new Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) regime.
The apex court had earlier given Trai four months time on February 4 to come up with a recommendation on telecom interconnection charges, which expired on June 4. Trai, which is facing opposition from the new and old established telecom operators over the issue and methods adopted in the consultation process to review the IUC, has also requested the apex court to give suitable directions regarding the issue.
Trai's IUC regulation was widely opposed by the state-run BSNL and private operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Etisalat DB and the CDMA lobby group AUSPI on various grounds. Interconnection charges are paid by a telecom service provider for using the network of other operators for transmitting and completing a call.
Last month, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (
TDSAT ) had dismissed the plea filed by the UK-based telecom operator Vodafone, which had opposed some of the questions incorporated in the IUC consultation paper of Trai.
On February 4 this year a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia had directed Trai to frame the IUC regulation afresh as per the directions of the TDSAT. Earlier, on September 29 last year, the TDSAT set aside the Trai's Interconnection Usage Charges (Regulation), 2009 and asked Trai to bring out fresh regulations in consultations with various stakeholders.
Following this, Trai on April 27 issued a consultation paper on IUC. However, a set of GSM companies questioned some of the issued raised in the paper, contending that it was not in accordance with the directions of TDSAT.
Courtesy: Mail Today
Special 
