Ambani calls for national debate on Access Deficit Charge

Ambani has called for a debate in the communication industry to tackle the issue of Access Deficit Charge (ACD). Reliance Infocomm CMD, Mukesh Ambani welcomed open market-based competition both, from other private players and the government, but said that anomalies need to be corrected. 

For instance, in the mobile phones market, private operators have to pay BSNL in the form of access deficit charge, even if it has not used BSNL's network, to subsidize its rural telephony. Ambani said, "Out of a 99 paise call, the subscriber has to pay 80 paise as subsidy. What kind of a model is this? There has to be some public understanding on this," he averred. 

He has welcomed FDI in the telecom segment. The possible merger of BSNL and MTNL to create a communication behemoth does not worry him. He quipped, "Our goal is not only the Indian market, we are looking at being global players in all markets." 

Mukesh Ambani was recently awarded "The V&D Telecom Man of the Year 2004" by Voice & Data, a Cyber Media publication. Ambani said, "We now look upon the telecom business as being separate from setting up a chemical or manufacturing project for Reliance Infocomm's vision to fully play out, we may even invest Rs 40,000 crore upwards." 

CYBER MEDIA NEWS

MUMBAI