The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed reducing mobile termination charges from Re 0.20 to Re 0.10 per minute from January 1, 2012 and to eliminate it completely by 2014.
In its submission to the Supreme Court, the regulator has said that it preferred to eliminate the charges completely over the next three years.
Mobile termination charges are paid by the mobile operator on whose network the call originates to the operator on whose network the call terminates. At present, this charge has been fixed at Re 0.20.
The proposal to reduce the fee has been opposed by incumbent operators, as they may lose revenue. However, new players are in favour of low termination rates because for them, the net outflow of traffic is more than incoming calls.
Prior to this, the Supreme Court had directed TRAI to frame a new set of interconnection charges between operators for carrying calls of one network through others. The apex court had given its direction on a petition by TRAI challenging the TDSAT order, which had dismissed TRAI’s Interconnection Usage Charges (Regulation), 2009. The TDSAT had dismissed TRAI’s 2009 regulations based on the petitions filed by various mobile operators objecting to the telecom regulator’s order.
In its 2009 regulation, TRAI had fixed a mobile termination charge (MTC) at Re 0.20 per minute for all local and national long-distance charges. It had also raised the MTC for incoming international calls to Re 0.40 per minute from Re 0.30, while imposing a ceiling on carriage fee of Re 0.65 per minute for domestic long-distance calls.
This regulation was opposed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL); Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Etisalat DB.
