Tata Teleservices is re-evaluating its decision to expand public call offices and cyber cafes across the country under the Tata Indicom umbrella.

S Ramakrishnan, managing director, said, "We are re-evaluating the entire chain of our PCOs and cyber cafes owing to the issue of interconnect usage charges." The network operator of the PCO will have to pay the IUC for the call terminated on any other network.

"We have already made a representation to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India asking them to review the IUC particularly for PCOs," Ramakrishnan added.

The interconnect usage charge is being levied across all kinds of networks and is expected to be paid by the originator (the operator from whose network the call is made) to the terminator (the networks where the call is terminated).

Tata Tele, which has about 3,800 branded PCOs in Andhra Pradesh, has decided that if Trai's decision is not in its favour, it 'will put up PCO's only in those areas which will give good revenues'.

Ramakrishnan said these areas would be bus stops, railway stations and movie theatres. Earlier, Tata Tele set up PCOs based on consumer demand such as grocery shops and medical provision stores. The company also planned to extend the branded PCOs or its fixed wireless services.

"We plan to be aggressive players in PCO/cyber cafes if Trai makes a change in our favour," Ramakrishnan added.

Tata Tele has also set up cyber cafes under the Tata Indicom Net Stores in major cities across the country. As part of its expansion plan, it had earlier invited applications from prospective franchisees under a revenue-sharing agreement.

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• The network operator of a PCO will have to pay IUC for calls terminated on any other network.
• Tata Tele has asked Trai to review the IUC, particularly for PCOs.
• Tata Tele will focus on the business if the IUC is scrapped.