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NEW DELHI, Aug. 28

BHARTI Telesonic Ltd, the long distance arm of the Bharti group, has finally signed an interconnect agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) enabling it to extend its services to over 40 million fixed line subscribers over and above eight million mobile subscribers.

Although Bharti had launched its national long distance operations in January this year, it could not extend its services to the fixed line subscribers because of a lack of understanding with BSNL on the percentage of revenue to be shared. As a result, even while the company signed interconnect agreements with both BSNL and MTNL for its international services, similar agreements for the national long distance (NLD) segment had to be delayed. With the result, its NLD operations were restricted to mobile-to-mobile calls only.

As per the terms of agreement reached between both the companies, for all fixed line to fixed line and fixed line to cellular calls, while the originating operator will keep 60 per cent, the NLD operator will keep 40 per cent.

According to Mr N. Arjun, CEO, Bharti Telesonic Ltd, the physical interconnect with BSNL is expected to be completed by mid-September. He also pointed out that a similar agreement would be signed with MTNL very soon.

"With the signing of the interconnect agreement, IndiaOne (the brand name for the NLD and ILD services) will now be able to spread its reach across the country. Since inception Bharti has provided great value to the Indian customer and has driven prices sharply downwards by first catalysing the massive 62.5 per cent rate cut in the domestic long distance charges (STD) and later by dropping the international call charges (ISD) by 40 per cent. The interconnect agreement with BSNL is another milestone for Bharti Telesonic and IndiaOne in its mission to bring world-class long distance services at affordable rates and providing a choice to the consumer," he said.

Mr Arjun told Business Line that the true benefit of this agreement with BSNL would accrue to the subscribers once the carrier access code is in place. As per the TRAI directive, the CACs have to be implemented within two months. After that the subscribers will not be tied down to choice of NLD operator that their fixed line operator chooses. They would then be able to choose for themselves as to which network their STD calls would have to routed on, he noted.

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National long distance interconnection — Bharti signs pact with BSNL

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