TRAI reduces ceiling tariff for dedicated broadband lines

Telecom regulator Trai has reduced ceiling tariffs of dedicated broadband lines, called as DLC and are mainly used by business houses and telecom operators, by up to 60 per cent.
The revised tariff regime for domestic leased circuits (DLCs) will come in to effect from August 1, 2014, Trai said in a statement.
Domestic Leased circuits are dedicated connections between service providers facility to customers premise and are separate from general public networks.
DLCs form crucial building block for the delivery of various services like e-commerce, e-governance, internet access for the masses and knowledge based industries like BPO, IT and ITes, the regulator said.

Besides, telecom service providers who do not have sufficient transmission infrastructure in any area also lease DLCs to provide various telecom services.
"TRAI has reduced ceiling tariffs for Point-to-Point Domestic Leased Circuits (P2P-DLCs) of E1 (2Mbps), DS3 (45 Mbps) and STM-1 (155 Mbps) capacities and has brought DLCs of STM-4 (622 Mbps) capacity under tariff regulation," the statement said.

The regulator said that it has left tariffs for DLCs of less than 2 megabit per second capacity under forbearance.
Trai has reduced ceiling tariff, or the maximum rate, on 2 mbps leased line having length between 5 kilometers to 500 km, called long distance band, from Rs 8.5 lakh per annum to Rs 3.41 lakh per annum.

Similarly for leased connection on long distance band having capacity of 45 mbps the new ceiling tariff has come down by 57 per cent to Rs 26.54 lakh from Rs 61.59 lakh per annum. For 155 mbps new rate has come down to Rs 58 per cent.
Trai has not made any change in annual rentals of leased circuit lines having capacity of 622 mbps.
For low distance band which is less than 5 km for 2 mbps line, Trai has reduced ceiling tariff by 29 per cent to Rs 12,086 per annum. In same band, which is less than 50 km for others, Trai has reduced ceiling on 45 mbps line by 12 per cent to Rs 5.84 lakh and 10 per cent on 155 mbps to Rs 16.1 lakh per annum.