Bharti Airtel laments discrimination

Bharti Airtel, maintains its stand that it is being discriminated against and that all efforts are being made by the same mobile operators to block/delay the entry of Airtel. The very fact that a joint statement had to be issued is indicative of the coming together of various operators to block a new entrant, the company said in a statement yesterday.

"Recently, four existing mobile operators of Sri Lanka issued a joint rejoinder to Airtel's plea for fairness in inter connection. The operators, while welcoming Airtel to Sri Lanka also advocated a level playing field. Airtel welcomes their welcoming us and would soon like to see them walking the talk", the company said.

Airtel seeks the very same agenda that has been clearly articulated in the recently issued draft Development Agenda (2006-2016) of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka.

Promoting competition, improving quality of service, making cellular services more affordable to the rural and urban consumers and discouraging anti competitive practices are some of the areas TRCSL has proposed to strengthen.

In the same Development Agenda, the TRC spells out the issues facing the Telecommunications industry, namely lack of a seamless Interconnection regime, lack of effective quality of service management and improve operator responsiveness to customer needs:

Airtel is very happy and honoured to have been given a chance by the TRC and Government of Sri Lanka to serve the Sri Lankan customer with quality service at affordable prices.

We remain committed to our promise of providing the customer, international quality service and experience at affordable prices with best in class products and services and state-of-the-art network across the country to offer best connectivity and a great mobile experience.

All operators with the exception of the largest telecom operator in Sri Lanka replied in December 2007 seeking paid Interconnection from Airtel while they themselves were practicing " free call" method (also referred to as "Sender Keeps All) for interconnection.

It is commendable that the largest telecom operator was the only operator to welcome Airtel by offering us the same terms and conditions for Interconnection as is the industry practice.

The reference to the 2003 interconnect Rule alluded to by the other operators was indeed not accepted/ implemented by any of the operators until the claimed implementation from August 2008. These agreements are yet to come into public domain.

While the "joint statements" being issued by the operators also make one think of the existence of some possible mutual arrangement, they are also attempting to divert the focus away from the major issues facing the Sri Lankan customer today. Call rates in Sri Lanka are high compared to the SAARC region.

As a result of higher call rates, the average usage of a mobile phone also known as Minutes of Usage or MOU in Sri Lanka is very low ranging anywhere between 120 minutes to 220 minutes for prepaid users. In contrast, India has an MOU of 461 minutes, China of 346 minutes and Singapore of 338 minutes.

While the average usage of India is 461 minutes, Airtel customers have a usage of 530 minutes per month. This has been made possible by offering good quality service at the most affordable cost to the customers.

The only way to make calls affordable to the Sri Lankan customer is to implement the regime of Calling Party Pays, which means that the customer should not pay for receiving a call. Operators pay each other the interconnect cost and pass on the benefit to the customer.

We would also like to reiterate that the Interconnect rates being demanded of by Airtel are very high and not cost based. A simple comparison of the interconnection rates in the SAARC countries reveals that the actual benchmark ratio is 25% to 30%. Actual Mobile Termination Charge in the SAARC region in SLR equivalent is as follows: India - 70 cents, Nepal - 36 cents, Bangladesh - 60 cents, Pakistan - 170 cents.

Further, the huge difference in call rates between "on net" (i.e. calls made between two customers belonging to the same network) and "off net" (i.e. calls made between two customers belonging to two different networks) calls is definitely cost based. This approach only goes towards zealously guarding one's market share rather than providing affordable tariffs to customers.

Once the Government and the Regulator of a country issue a valid mobile license, the provision of interconnection cannot be stopped on any grounds let alone any commercial grounds! We remain committed to serve the customer of Sri Lanka and would rather have the customer be the judge of our services than have operators deny us the chance to bring quality and affordable services to Sri Lanka, the statement said.