Business - Bharti writes to DOT over Local Dialling & 2 in 1

NEW DELHI: Bharti, India’s leading telecom service provider, has written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asking to be allowed to continue with its ‘2-in-1’ and ‘subscriber local dialling’ services, sources told DNA Money.

The company had introduced these services some years ago, but had to withdraw them after they came under scrutiny of the government and the telecom regulator.

In its letter to DoT secretary Siddharth Behura, Bharti said as the government has permitted ‘push to talk’ services after expressing some concerns, it should take a favourable view on the continuation of 2-in-1 and subscriber local dialling facilities.

The 2-in-1 service gives mobile phone users the benefit of both pre-paid and post-paid billing systems.

But the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) objected to this, saying the tariff plan under the 2-in-1 scheme violated the national numbering plan, and that it could cause security risks.

The 2-in-1 plan was meant for Airtel post-paid users who wanted to control their STD or ISD expenses by linking them with a pre-paid billing arrangement. Such users did not have to make security deposits for STD or ISD calls.

The other service mentioned in Bharti’s letter to the DoT is subscriber local dialling. Under this, an Airtel subscriber in a particular city (say Mumbai) could call another subscriber from a different city (say Delhi) visiting Mumbai on local call charges and not STD rates.

So, both the caller and the person called benefited. This scheme too came under the government’s scanner.

Many telecom operators have had to pull out services or tariff plans due to Trai or DoT’s objections. For example, the ‘push to talk’ service, which was first launched by Tata Teleservices. Under this service, subscribers can make unlimited calls without STD or roaming charges within the network. Initially, the DoT raised objections to the service citing security monitoring issues, but later allowed it.

Bharti’s letter to the DoT said that the two services are aimed at providing benefits to subscribers and haven’t caused revenue loss to any operator or violated the numbering plan. So, they shouldn’t face any action. A DoT committee is reviewing the penalty provisions of the licence agreement related to such violations.