DoT has allowed stand-alone long distance carriers to directly market their services to individual users in the form of prepaid calling cards.

DoT has allowed stand-alone long distance carriers to directly market their services to individual users in the form of prepaid calling cards. The development follows TRAI’s August 2008 recommendations to unlock national long distance and international long distance (ILD) services for basic service providers.

According to the current regulation, only domestic telecom operators with long distance licences are allowed to provide these services directly to end-users. Following DoT’s decision, tariffs for these services are expected to fall. Globally, long distance tariffs have fallen 20-53 per cent after customers were allowed to choose their operators. The move, however, is not likely to impact existing operators as ILD contributes less than 3 per cent to their revenues.