For the third straight day on Monday, cellphone users could not access BSNL landlines.
The ongoing stand-off between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and private telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea seems far from over. For the third straight day on Monday, cellphone users could not access BSNL landlines.
Connectivity to cellphone services of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea were disabled by BSNL on Friday. The reason attributed to the move was that these private service providers had failed to pay dues amounting to Rs12 crore to BSNL.
Though the outgoing facility from BSNL landlines to these private telecom service numbers were enabled on Saturday, incoming calls to BSNL landlines still have not been permitted.
Speaking to DNA on Monday afternoon, BSNL’s principal general manager, VK Mahendra, said the decision was not an abrupt one as the public sector service provider had given repeated warnings to the private firms to pay up.
“BSNL is not using muscle power in any sense against the private service providers. We are just going by the law,” Mahendra said, and declined to give a time frame on when the services would be regularised.
“Being an operational unit in Pune, we are carrying out orders from the circle office in Mumbai. Though I empathise with the customers, I have no idea when the connections would be regularised,” he said.
HV Sowani, officer on special duty to Mahendra, said the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and the Supreme Court had given the order in BSNL’s favour, which resulted in such action. “Private telecom operators had filed a case in the Supreme Court and appealed in the TDSAT, but both ruled in BSNL’s favour,” Sowani said.
Genesis Burson-Marstellar, the public relations agency, said Sanjay Warke, CEO (Maharashtra & Goa) of Vodafone Essar Ltd, did not want to speak to the media on the matter, as he had been told by Vodafone headquarters not give any clarification or statement to the media.
Similarly, marketing and communication manager of Vodafone (Pune), Chaitanya Wakate, told DNA the official statement from Vodafone would be given to the media very soon. The other appellate officers and nodal officers for Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel in Pune were not available for comment.
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