Spat with Reliance Info resolved: VSNL

Telecom major Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Monday said all issues with Reliance Infocomm over Flag Telecom including the access to cable landing station had been resolved last year and no dispute exists anymore.

"Between Reliance's FLAG Telecom and VSNL all issues were voluntarily and amicably resolved between the two parties last year," VSNL said in a letter sent to TRAI.

Rubbishing the allegations made by US Trade Representative recently, VSNL states that "FLAG Telecom and VSNL have settled their differences amicably to the extent of the issue of access of existing capacity available under the C&MA for sale on the FEA Cable System".

VSNL has further requested the regulator that "this was a single commercial dispute involving only one of the six cable systems that land into India today. This single dispute, that was amicably and satisfactorily resolved, is hardly any evidence that there is undue concentration in submarine cable sector in India or that TRAI needs to adopt burdensome new regulations governing access and pricing".

Strongly rejecting USTR's allegations that VSNL dominates the submarine cable market sector in India, the company said, "out of the eight cable stations, only one is wholly-owned by VSNL and VSNL has no ownership stake in i2i and FALCON. In other five cable systems, VSNL has a small, non-controlling and minority stake".

The six major cable systems that land in India today are FEA, SMW-2, SMW-3, SAFE, i2i and Tata Indicom. Two more cable systems, SMW-4 and FALCON, are scheduled to become operational in near future. Bharat Sanchar Nigam also plans to set up two cable systems, one between India and Sri Lanka; and the other between India and Singapore.