Trai mulls paper on mobile termination charges

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is planning a consultancy paper on mobile termination charges (MTC) even as it examines various methods and global practices on MTC.

The move gains importance as telecom operators in the country are divided over the issue of MTC — with existing operators seeking a hike and the new licencees demanding a reduction in the fee. The present MTC, which is levied by operators on other service providers for terminating calls on their network, is 30 paise per minute.

Trai officials are mulling a separate consultancy paper on MTC, even though the regulator has called for a cap on interconnect user charges (IUC). Now, with the difference of opinion among operators, Trai is mulling a consultancy paper, industry sources said.

Conventionally, a consultancy paper is rolled out to get opinion from all sectors of the industry, based on which a regulation is made.

The established telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular are seeking a 10 paise hike in MTC. But new licencees like Unitech, Datacom Solutions and Loop Telecom are seeking a reduction of 25-50 per cent.

For the existing operators, a hike in MTC will mean an increase in revenue as they expect a rise in the number of calls terminated on their networks as the new operators start launching their services.

However, the new operators feel that hiking MTC will further burden them at a time their revenues are at the lowest levels.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM operators’ body, has decided to support a formula for mobile termination charges (MTC) that will benefit “efficient operators” rather than existing operators or the new licencees.

On the other hand, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (the CDMA operators; body) has sought reduction in the termination charge, stating that it has drastically plunged due to exponential rise in minutes of usage.