The Association of Basic Telecom Operators has asked the telecom regulator to make access deficit charge available to all private basic operators for the sustainability of fixed line business.

In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on revised IUC regulation, which is slated to be notified by month end, ABTO said that making ADC available only to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and not to private basic operators would be "discriminatory and anti-competitive."

"BSNL, despite the financial muscle it has, is a beneficiary of large budgetary grants which are given to support the social objective of providing telephones across the country beyond commercial considerations alone," it said, adding the state-owned corporation has recently got approval for Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) assistance from the finance ministry.  

"Private BSOs, on the other hand, do not have access to any such large resources and have to borrow or raise resources from financial institutions under very stringent conditions.

Therefore, to only allow BSNL access to ADC and deny it to private BSOs, would be totally discriminatory, anti competitive and beyond the realms of natural justice," ABTO said.

The association supported the rationale of reduction in subsidy over the long run but said in the present scenario the country should see a balanced growth in all segments of telecom services and hence the private basic operators' fixed line telephony must be supported with ADC.

"Trai's contemplation that all access providers would share the burden of ADC, which would allow co-existence and growth of the fixed line business in the years ahead, is a step in the right direction with support of ADC to fixed line services," ABTO has said.

Emphasising that the access deficit charge was to meet subsidised services being provided by basic operators, ABTO pointed out that tariffs for fixed line services have been kept low below cost on account of a variety of socio economic reasons and it was for this reason that they should be subsidised from the ADC fund.