[India] TRAI norms on account separation a good step but a bit late: Industry

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

TRAI norms on account separation a good step but a bit late: Industry

New Delhi, December 30, 2002


The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issuing guidelines 
on account separation in order to identify cross subsidisation 
practices in the telecom sector is a good step though this should 
have been done earlier, say industry officials.

Account separation is the fundamental cornerstone of arriving at fair 
interconnect agreements and ideally should have been in place when 
the basic players entered the cellular arena, KPMG director for 
telecom Rothin Bhattacharya remarked. Echoed the Cellular Operators 
Association of India (Coai) director general TV Ramachandran, "It's a 
good step, but it came a bit too late."

"It's an extremely important step. The philosophy of account 
separation is to secure a level playing field where you want tariff 
based on cost rather than on opportunities available with integrated 
players," added Bhattacharya. This step would help in creating a 
level playing field since the costs are shown separately ensuring 
that the fixed line advantages are not bundled with national long 
distance, Ramachandran said. He hoped that the TRAI would issue its 
calling party pay and interconnect guidelines soon.

The system for accounting separation is to be implemented from April 
1, 2003, the TRAI said in its recommendations sent to department of 
telecommunication (DoT). The regulator has recommended maintenance of 
financial accounts by services providers separately based on type of 
services and area of operation.

As per the guidelines, all telecom service providers including basic, 
national long distance, international long distance, cellular, VSAT 
(very small aperture satellite terminals) and Internet players would 
have to maintain separate accounts.

Source: The Financial Express


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