Cellular operators body COAI on Monday termed Trai’s consultation paper on call connect charges as “unfair on incumbent operators”, and questioned the regulator’s urgency in initiating the process of
Cellular operators body COAI on Monday termed Trai’s consultation paper on call connect charges as “unfair on incumbent operators”, and questioned the regulator’s urgency in initiating the process of interconnect review, which the association claimed “favours new entrants”.
“We are unable to understand what is the hurry. Usually, there is a 2-3 years timeframe (for the review) but it has only been one year,” COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) director general Rajan Mathews said.
On Friday, Trai started the review of interconnection charges — paid by one telecom operator to another for connecting phone calls — against the backdrop of 4G and Internet telephony changing the way consumers communicate.
At present, the termination charges for a mobile to mobile local and national long distance call is pegged at 14 paise per minute while the termination charges for international incoming call to wireless and wireline stands at 53 paise per minute.
Trai has sought public view on how domestic termination charges should be computed — cost based or Bill and Keep (BAK) — for maximisation of consumer welfare, adoption of more efficient technologies and growth of the telecom sector in the country.
In BAK method, each telecom operator bills its own subscribers for outgoing traffic that it sends to other interconnecting network and keeps the revenue received from its subscribers. “Trai is trying to introduce ‘Bill and Keep’ method,” Mr Mathews said.
