TRAI reduces carriage charges, STD calls set to be cheaper

On Monday, Trai reduced the interconnect usage charge by 30% on calls made from mobile phones to 14p from the current 20p

Long distance calls, mainly made from landline phones, are set to become cheaper. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday announced a cut in carriage charges in this regard, which an operator pays another for carrying a call, to 35 paise a minute from the current 65p a minute.

Telecom service providers pay a domestic carriage charge when their subscriber makes an STD call on the network of another company. STD calls get routed through a national long distance operator (NLDO) and carriage charges play an important role in determining STD rates.

The change is effective from March 1. “It was observed that there is a large variation, with some NLDOs offering carriage charges as low as 9p a minute while a few others charge at the ceiling rate of 65p a minute. The potential misuse of a high ceiling is another reason that prompted a review of the carriage charge regime,” said Trai Advisor Arvind Kumar.

Private entities are already charging less than 65p a minute, so there would not be a major impact, said Rajan Mathews, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India. “The biggest beneficiaries would be (government-owned) Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, which hold the largest landline network. This is being done to increase landline usage,” he said.

However, relatively few people call from landline to mobile or vice versa and landline to landline, according to experts.

Trai will review these charges in 2017-18. The networks are transforming to an internet-based system, expected to change the carriage cost structure.

On Monday, Trai  reduced the interconnect usage charge (IUC) by 30 per cent on calls made from mobile phones to 14p from the current 20p. IUC charges on calls made from landline phones were done away with from the earlier 20p. The move could mean lower tariffs for the consumers.