GUWAHATI, Jan 6 — While cellphone users in the rest of the country can celebrate the over 66 per cent reduction in STD call charges, those in Guwahati and Shillong will have to wait a while before they can join the celebrations. There is no immediate chance of a fall in current rates in the two North East cities, the only two in the region to have cellular phone services.
According to sources here, a rate-cut is possible only if the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which carry the STD calls, decide to reduce its tariff. Currently, the BSNL peak STD rate is Rs 9 on an average. Last week, cellular operators in the country, barring Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) and the-State-owned BSNL and MTNL, announced the cut in mobile-to-mobile STD rates from Rs 9 to Rs 2.99 per minute. RTL is the only cellular operator in the North East besides the BSNL. The rate-cut was literally forced on them due to the launch of Reliance Infocomm offering STD calls at just 40 paise a minute.
Sources here said that Reliance Infocomm (RI), which has the licence to offer basic telephony services in 18 telecom circles in the country, not the North East though, has been able to announce its trend setting rates owing to the cheaper WLL services. Cellular operators have to depend on the BSNL or the India One network of Bharti to carry their long distance calls. India One, for the record, is the country’s first private long distance network.
According to the sources, while cellular operators in other parts of the country have been able to reduce their tariff owing to their combined decision to transmit voice data through the Bharati network on a revenue sharing basis, RTL in Shillong and Guwahati is totally dependent on the BSNL network. Once BSNL cuts down its rates, cellphone users in these two cities will automatically benefit. BSNL is expected to announce tariff-cuts soon to match the industry trends.
Of course, Reliance Infocomm’s offer of STD calls at 40 paise a minute will remain a distant dream for people in the North East as it has no licence to operate here. RI is offering limited mobility services with its WLL connectivity using CDMA technology. Cellular operators use the GSM technology.
There are about 36,000 cellphone users in Guwahati and about 7,000 in Shillong. According to sources, this customer base is too small, compared to that in the rest of the country. Local mobile phone tariff could come down if there was an increase in the customer base. The market in Guwahati is almost saturated with new subscriptions doing down. In Shillong, RTL has been operating at a loss for some years now.
RTL is the licensee for both the Assam and the North East circles. The North East circle includes all the other states of the region. Though RTL has licence to operate all over the region, its services have been restricted owing to the lack of clearance to expand operations. The Government had announced some time ago that mobile phone services will be allowed all over the region soon. A formal order, however, is yet to come. The clearance is given by the Standing Advisory Committee for Frequency Allocation (SACFA) where 17 departments are represented, including the Home and Defence ministries.
Sources say that once the clearance is given, cellular operations can be started in a couple of important towns in Assam within two-three months. Other towns in the region can be covered in time. Survey work has already been done in several town in the region in the hope that clearance will come. It may be mentioned here that RTL is the only private cellular operator licenced to operate in the North East and Assam circles. It got the licence in 1995. There were two more biddings for the region in 1998 and 2000. No other operator came forward. BSNL, of course, is licenced to operate countrywide.