With no resolution is sight to the nationwide indefinite strike by thousands of BSNL employees, telecom services in many parts of the country have been disrupted for over a week.
BSNL executives maintained the strike had only led to minor disruptions in certain circles.
They said the matter could be settled in a couple of days.
However, TV Ramachandran, director general, COAI, said cellular operators were unable to complete calls. Customer satisfaction had taken a beating, he said.
COAI has also been submitting detailed letters to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on a daily basis from several operators including Bharti, Hutch, Aircel, Idea and BPL listing the Point Of Interconnect that are non-functional in each of the circles they operate and also demanding that Authority take up the matter with BSNL for early restoration.
Trai officials ruled out mediation between the striking employees and the BSNL management.
"With large scale interconnect failures across the country, customers are taking out their fury on our customer care executives," said a spokesperson of a leading cellular operator.
"As landlines are down, cellular networks are getting increasingly crammed. This is seeing the number of call drop rates touch new highs," added an executive of another cellular operator.
Over 40,000 executives of BSNL have gone on strike demanding faster promotions. These officers, who were earlier with the Department of Telecom, which had different recruitment rules, service conditions and promotional policies had been absorbed in BSNL during March-April 2004, and were promised an upgradation of their IDA pay scale on time-bound basis in 4-6 years.
While these officers were not given promotions, BSNL said that they were given hikes of Rs 4,000-5000 per month on an average without any change of duties and responsibilities.
"They were also paid arrears in lakhs of rupees from October 2000 to their date of absorption. This has already put a significant burden on the financial health of the company in the long run," the company said.
When contacted, a spokesperson for the striking employees said : "Talks with the management have failed to break the deadlock. We understand the concerns of the subscribers -- we will continue the strike while ensuring that basic services remain unaffected.