Date:26/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/26/stories/2005052615680400.htm

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Tamil Nadu

`No zero' dial plan put in place

N. Ravi Kumar and Sandhya Soman

Talk times yet to change for subscribers of private operators

Right call? A customer at a PCO in Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

N. Ravi Kumar and

Sandhya Soman

CHENNAI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) went ahead on Wednesday with the launch of the `Ellame Ippo Local' scheme, a measure to close the gap between the two telecom circles in the State. Senior officials of BSNL Chennai Telephones said that they had made the necessary arrangements on Tuesday itself and hence the operation was successful.

While the move is expected to increase call traffic for BSNL, the situation remained unchanged for subscribers of mobile and landline services offered by private operators.

More time needed

"We will migrate to the new system in the next two days," an executive of a company providing a spectrum of telephony products said. A PCO operator in Royapettah said that the company had informed its franchisees recently that it would take at least a week for the new plan to come into force.

According to the executive of a private mobile service provider, it was not easy to implement such schemes at short notice. "There are genuine issues to be resolved ... agreements signed with other operators and all of these will take three to four days."

One section that felt the heat immediately was the PCO (public call offices) operators of BSNL.

Revenue will be hit

The `no zero' plan would affect the revenue of the more than one lakh PCOs in Chennai and its neighbourhood, M.A. Aziz, president, Chennai STD-PCO Owners' Association, said. They faced the prospect of losing on their commission as well as the service charge of Rs. 2 per call as the new scheme allowed calls from landline to mobiles anywhere in Tamil Nadu at local charges.

"We will lose out on the Rs. 2 service charge per call," adds K.K. Subramani, whose PCO booth is at the Central Station. Their exact loss would be known only when they get the first bill under the new plan.

G. Sridhar, an Airtel PCO operator, said that the reduction in call rates would translate into a drop in the bill amount. As a result of this, his commission, worked out at the rate of 30 per cent, would also come down.

But as Mr. Aziz said: "Our business has been hit ever since cellphone usage increased." Booth operators, he said, would continue to collect the service charge of Rs. 2 per call. That is the only way out to compensate for them to recover for the investment on the booths.