New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on January 26 opposed the new tariff and rental rules proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), saying, "This is another way of compelling fixed phone users to change over to cell phone use and conferring benefit to the private monopolists operators."

"The CPI strongly opposes the new tariff and rental rules proposed by the TRAI, which imposes higher rates but curtails facilities for common phone users while offering cell-phone users who are mostly from the affluent sections of society, free incoming calls and more facilities," the party general secretary A B Bardan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the BSNL employees union, in a statement said the TRAI decision to reduce free calls by 50 per cent for basic phone users would put a heavy burden on ordinary consumers.

"The price war in telecom has ultimately resulted in loss to the common man," the union said in a statement.

"As far as BSNL is concerned, the government is yet to pay BSNL an amount of Rs 3,750 crore, that is, the loss made by the company in giving rural and village connections," it said adding the hurdle in giving cellular connections by BSNL should be removed by making available sufficient SIM cards and accessories.

"We strongly demand that the government and the TRAI should retract from the decision to increase the rental and local charges in the interest of the common subscribers," it said.

The policy to overcharge STD/ISD calls and cross subsidise the local call and rental had worked favourably in increasing the tele-density as also spreading the telephone connection in small towns as well as villages and remote areas, the statement said.

PTI