India - CDMA operators has counter-claimed that GSM operators were overstating their subscriber numbers

[ciol] Responding to the allegations made by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular that CDMA players have been wrongly reporting wireless subscriber figures to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Tata Teleservices has pointed finger back at the active wireless subscriber figure reported by other telecom operators.

"The statement issued by some of the older operators on VLR (Visitors Location Register) figures contains inaccuracies and doesn't hold water. That's because it does not present a true apple-to-apple comparison. As a Tata Group company, Tata Teleservices Limited has taken on the most stringent parameters for VLR reportage, that's on a peak-period of just seven days, while most other operators are calculating their VLR figures on much longer periods, of 30 days and so on,” mentioned TTSL spokesperson in a statement send to CIOL.

The TTSL spokesperson further clarified that TTSL does not register a SIM in its visitor location register if it has been inactive for seven days while most of the other operators do not remove it from their VLR for 30 days.

The spokesperson added that some operators even wait for longer period of time, say 45 days, 60 days and even 90 days for SIM to respond.

“That's the reason for the difference in VLR figures from operator to operator. Going forward, TTSL will also be reporting its VLR figures on the basis of the direction by DoT – that will provide a true picture and a just comparison of VLR and other parameters,” mentioned the statement.

TTSL mentioned that the company has learnt this kind of practice being followed by most of the operators from DoT itself.

Reacting to TRAI’s recent report on telecom subscribers base in which the authority has first time included active subscribers number based on VLR, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular in a joint statement alleged that a set of telecom operators, having CDMA operations and relatively new GSM operation, inflated their subscriber numbers. This way both Bharti and Idea Cellular in hidden words pointed fingers at TTSL and Reliance Communications.

“The first-ever Visitor Location Register report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which captures the number of active customers on mobile networks, nails the canards and lies spread by a particular set of telecom operators falsely alleging that established and performing GSM operators have been reporting inflated customer numbers. The TRAI report exposes the double standards of these operators. Paradoxically, they are the ones who have inflated their own numbers, as evidenced in the report of their VLR records establishing a very low active customer base both for their long established CDMA operations and the relatively new GSM operations,” mentioned the joint statement from Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

TRAI in its report on telecom subscriber base in last September included active subscribers on all telecom networks. The report stated that active wireless base based on VLR was 482.89 million against the total wireless base of 687.71 million by TSPs.

According to this new set of data, Bharti Airtel has 89.3 per cent active subscriber on its network and Idea Cellular 87.89 per cent of their total subscriber base.

Tata Indicom has only 44 per cent, Tata DoCoMo 46.18, Reliance CDMA 68.26 per cent, and Reliance GSM 66.35 per cent of active subscribers on its network against the total number of subscribers reported by these companies.

TTSL points finger at GSM operators