Trai may pull up Airtel, Voda, Idea in ISD calling card case

Trai received complaints from interested ILD companies that these operators are not signing agreements, thereby violating regulation

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is believed to be considering issuing showcause notice to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for not signing agreements with companies interested in providing international calling card services directly to consumers.

“Showcause notice is ready in the matter (violation of International Calling Card Services Regulations) for Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. They will be given about a week’s time to reply and then further action will be taken,” a source told PTI.

When contacted, spokespersons of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea declined to comment.

There was no reply to queries sent to Trai.

Trai has received complaints from interested ILD (International Long Distance) companies that these operators are not signing agreements, thereby violating regulation.

The regulation, issued in August 2014, was aimed at lowering ISD rates by allowing ILD operators to directly offer their service to consumers.

A user of a calling card is required to dial a certain prefix code on his/her phone to make calls using network ILD operators.

Since companies having only ILD cannot have direct access to customers, they are required to go through telecom service providers, mainly mobile operators.

Trai observed that ILD operators that in many cases ILD operator gets only 10 per cent share out of total ISD rate paid by consumers and 90 per cent is kept by access services.

It also reduced charges that were paid by ILD operators to main telecom operators from their ISD call charges to 40 paisa per minute for wireless services and Rs 1.20 per minute for wireline services.

The calling cards have not been launched till date mainly because of some access service providers not signing interconnect agreement.

Access service providers are companies like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, BSNL, MNTL, Reliance Communication whose services are directly available for customers.

Under the rule, an ILD operator interested in providing services through 'Calling Card' shall request, in writing, to all access service providers to enter into interconnection agreements so that its customer can access services of ILD operator by dialling some special numbers irrespective of their mobile network.

As per the regulation, access service providers shall, within thirty days from the date of receipt of request enter into interconnection agreement with the ILD operator so that they can issue calling cards directly to consumers.

The regulation issued in August 2014 bars the access service providers from denying their consumers the ILD voice services offered through calling card either directly or indirectly.