The letter, which has been signed by Mr Harsha Vardhana Singh, economic advisor, maintains: "The Authority has directed BSNL under Section 13 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Act 2000 to apply the revised pulse rates to determine carriage charges to be paid to BSNL for the inter-network call scenarios."

In a letter dated December 2000, BSNL had asked the Trai to allow it to apply the new tariffs only to "intra-circle calls originated by the telephone subscribers of BSNL, and terminating in the basic service network," thereby reducing STD charges, for calls made within the 50 Km to 200 Km area, with effect from January 26.

However, the Trai subsequently received representations from COAI and ABTO seeking the Authority's intervention to enlarge the scope of BSNL's proposal in respect of inter-network calls also. They requested application of the revised pulse rates for inter-network calls carried on their networks. (See eFE January 24, 2001)

The private telecom operators wanted that the revised pulse rates should also apply to calculating the carriage charge to be paid by cellular mobile network to the fixed network and should apply for the carriage charge paid by private basic service providers to BSNL on intra-circle fixed to fixed network calls.

Now, in the letter sent on Thursday, the Trai says that, "According to Schedule II of the Telecommunication Interconnection (Charges and Revenue Sharing) Regulation of May 1999, for domestic long distance calls from cellular mobile to basic service subscriber, the basic service provider has to be paid Rs. 1.20 per metered call, with the number of metered calls measured at the pulse rate applicable to basic service long distance calls."

"On this basis, as far as conveyance on fixed network is concerned from the point of interconnection (POI) to the terminating short distance charging centre (SDCC), the pulse rate for calls from cellular mobile should be the same as applicable to basic service calls, i.e. it should be the same as the reduced pulse rates that will be applicable from 26th January, 2001," it adds.

As per the letter, "This determination is consistent with the principle that the usage charge should be cost based, and that the same carriage charge should be paid for the same network elements used."