Bharti Airtel has sought the intervention of the Department of Telecom to ask State- owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to not block calls carried by private long distance operators within a circle.

Bharti has shot off a complaint to DoT saying that BSNL was not taking calls made to its subscribers if the calls were being transmitted through the network of a private operator.

Bharti has pointed out that while DoT has allowed national long distance (NLD) operators to carry calls within a circle, BSNL was insisting that its approval was required.

"We would like to draw your attention to the amendment to the NLD licence agreement where DoT had allowed operators to terminate intra circle traffic with the consent of the originating operator only. Despite the amended definition on the scope of NLD services, BSNL is not permitting the private NLDOs to terminate intra circle traffic on its point of interconnection," said the Bharti letter to DoT.

Industry sources said that consumers were facing problems because a number of calls made by private operator's subscribers to BSNL users within the same circle were being blocked because the call was being carried on a private NLD network.

contd on page 2...