[nukkad]

["Nelson Fernandes" <>]

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The sentence 'We saw her duck' has three meanings.
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Cell cos agree to interconnect with WLL services

| | January 20, 2003 | 18:32 IST

Cellular operators on Monday gave a commitment to IT and Communications
Minister Pramod Mahajan that they will immediately start routing all calls
including limited mobility services.
"I am pleased to announce that the cellular industry has agreed for
termination of calls of basic players, even WLL services with immediate
effect," Mahajan told reporters in New Delhi.

Asked what had prompted cellular operators to give such a commitment,
Mahajan said that the operators had raised issues relating to level playing
field which he has promised to look into.

Asked what had prompted MTNL to drag itself into the impasse, Mahajan said,
"I have just returned from a week-long trip and I cannot say anything at
this moment but I don't oppose what it (MTNL) did."

Mahajan, who held a 90-minute long meeting with the cellular industry to end
the logjam over termination of calls from WLL-based limited mobility
services to cellular players, said he would request telecom regulator TRAI
to come up with regulations for a "just and fair" interconnect regime.

Interestingly, the same cellular industry represented by Sunil Mittal of
Bharti Group, Virat Bhatia of AT&T and COAI president Rajeev Chandrashekhar,
which had last week defied TRAI's directive to interconnect and termed
TRAI's directiveas illegal, unjust and biased, on Monday agreed to
interconnect with basic telecom players after the meeting.

Surprisingly, TRAI was saying the same thing to cellular players as Mahajan,
which was not to snap links with other operators since regulations on
interconnect user charge by TRAI would be announced soon.

However, the industry appeared to have listened to the minister and agreed
to allow unblocking of termination of calls of basic operators including WLL
mobile with immediate effect.

"They had raised issues relating to level playing field such as access
charge and entry fee. As far as the issue of access charge is concerned, I
have requested telecom regulator

TRAI to come out with a just and fair interconnect regime," he said
expressing hope that it would come through in the next couple of days.


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