The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) is in favor of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposal to examine whether Re 0.20 per minute is the right price for connecting a call from one network to another. The charge, called termination or interconnect charge, is paid by one network to another when handing over a call to a subscriber on the latter’s network, to cover costs of connecting (or completing) the call.
While Bharti airtel and Idea Cellular have opposed any move to lower the Re 0.20 per minute charge, Uninor had recently opposed the GSM operators stand claiming that the big operators are simply using calls from other networks to subsidise their operations.
Uninor had earlier pointed out that while airtel and Idea may claim that this rate does not cover their expenses involved in completing an incoming call to one of their customers, they sometimes offer call rates (including originating, carriage and terminating charges) that are lower than that to own customers.
AUSPI, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices have also joined Uninor in opposig the stand taken by Airtel and Idea.
“We support TRAI’s initiative to review, which will pave the way for further reduction in the telecom tariffs and subsequent benefit to the consumers, particularly in rural areas,” said the Secretary General of Association of AUSPI, SC Khanna.
In 2009 IUC regulation, TRAI had fixed mobile termination charge (MTC) at Re 0.20 per minute for all local and national long distance calls; Re 0.40 for incoming international calls and put a ceiling on carriage fee of Re 0.65 for domestic long distance calls.
