The state owned telco major finally had to kow-tow to directions from telecom regulator TRAI, and decided to restore services of private operators on its network in Punjab.

"TRAI direction has given date up to 21st of this month to respond. BSNL will adhere to the same," said a senior BSNL official 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued directive to BSNL yesterday to restore the services of private players in the Punjab circle by October 21.

It disconnected them from the network for non-payment of interconnect usage charges. Telecom companies pay IUC to one another for using different network to complete the calls of their subscribers.

All of them are connected on a point, commonly known as Point of Interconnection (PoI). BSNL has disconnected network of private players from PoIs in various telecom circles including Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Goa.

The BSNL official indicated that in compliance with the TRAI directive, it will only restore service in Punjab circle.

It has claimed outstanding IUC dues of Rs 165 crore from private operators at the rate of 65 paise per minute for carrying the calls from their networks to the end user.

However, private operators contend that TRAI''s IUC (Regulation 2009) mandates private operators to pay 15 paisa per minute as carriage charges for a call to the BSNL''s fixed line network within the state/circle.

Reliance and Tata Teleservices approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which stayed BSNL from disconnecting the services.

However, BSNL did not restore services of other players namely Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular on the grounds that they were not a party to the TDSAT case.

BSNL has disconnected PoI of RCom, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and TTSL in Punjab circle.

TDSAT has said that till the next date of hearing, which is November 1, operators would continue to pay at the old IUC rates.