A bitter fight has been going on between Airtel and BSNL and Airtel has happened to threaten the rival party that they will take a further step and block all their calls which will, obviously, complicate the lives of the users.
But why Airtel attempted such a threat? Let’s find out.
Airtel’s Threat
Airtel snapped a letter to BSNL mentioning they will attempt to block all their calls which will result in two things:
1. The Airtel users will not be able to connect and receive BSNL users’ calls
2. The BSNL users will not be able to connect and receive Airtel users’ calls
This, all, will lead to experiencing problems for all the users of Airtel and BSNL. As a response, BSNL approached the Department of Telecom to play a part of resolving and bring a solution to this problem as millions of users are on stake.
Reasons For Threat From Airtel
The foremost reason for this threat is the merging of Airtel and Tata Teleservices which occurred in July 2019. But this collaboration was not approved by DoT as there was a huge pending due of Rs.8300 crore, which is in direct relation to one-time spectrum changes.
This month, the DoT has slid the payment matter to the Supreme Court in order to pressurize Airtel to pay the pending dues.
BSNL wrote a letter to DoT stating, “Airtel has threatened that any failure of calls of BSNL customers out of non-implementation of necessary routing changes shall be the sole responsibility of BSNL.”
Why BSNL?
Airtel had attempted this threat so that BSNL can treat the consumer mobility business of Airtel and Tata Teleservices as a single entity.
As a part of the 2009 deal, the Tata Teleservices was practicing and making use of BSNL’s towers which has been stretched to 15 more years.
Now, as a single entity, Airtel is expected to take this deal forward, of making use of BSNL’s towers, but it seems they are unable to because of the DoT’s objection.
