Chennai BSNL rattled by unfair trade practices of private telecom

Chennai: Top officials of Chennai BSNL who have suspected fraudulent acts and unfair trade practices by the staff of Aircel in connivance with other private telecom operators have sounded an alert with Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cell in Chennai. They also have plans to reach out to TRAI if the unfair practices continue.

According to BSNL insiders, in the past two months more than 12 lakh customers, mostly from Aircel and other private firms, have joined the BSNL network through mobile portability, but the actual conversion should have been larger. Thousands of corporate customers, high billing individuals and CUG connections of corporate firms were prevented from joining BSNL network by not providing the technical assistance required for conversion of network.

When contacted, BSNL chief general manager S M Kalavathy admitted that the BSNL officials are aware of the unfair trade practices. “Private telecom players have involved in such activities and we have raised the issue with term cell. The response to BSNL is encouraging and we are looking forward to more customers as our billing and service mechanisms are transparent”, she said.

“Customers of Aircel are not able to transfer their number to BSNL network. Mobile number portability was rejected 3 times by Aircel due to wrong UPC code reason within a span 30 days. Customer were forced to go to other private players by conspiracy”, alleged V Sathiabalan, former telecom advisory member. However there are no technical problems for Aircel number holders, if they wish to join private telecom services.

For instance, several Aircel customers with CUG connection employed at a coal terminal in Ennore Port wanted to convert to BSNL, but the staffers who clear the technicalities for mobile portability delayed the process forcing the end users to switch to another private company, he said sharing the numbers with DC.

Department of telecommunication should probe the matter and book the offenders for two reasons. First the public who are customers are cheated by tactical delay and secondly BSNL being a public sector company is affected causing loss to the government, Sathiabalan reasoned. In a public sector company you have a complaint mechanism to correct the wrongdoers, whereas in corporate sector everything is hidden with the clause of 'terms and conditions apply', he added.