Dot Allows Higher Inter-City Call Rates

Cellular companies can charge subscriber trunk dialling (STD) charges for mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-fixed long-distance calls made within the circles they operate in, department of telecommunications officials have clarified.

The operators had doubts on whether DoT would allow them to charge STD rates on calls between cities after the recent DoT proposal to hike fixed-to-mobile telecom charges from Rs 1.25 for a three-minute call to about Rs 28.

The tender guidelines inviting private participation in cellular telecom services do not specify the tariffs for inter-city calls in the circles. All that the tender specified was that cellular operators could charge between Rs 4.20 and Rs 16.80 per minute of call.

 

However, it was not clear whether this was only for local calls or was to be applicable for long-distance calls also. When some of the operators broached this issue with the DoT brass, they were told that the tender guidelines did not disallow the introduction billing of long-distance calls on the basis of STD metering.

The business plans of cellular operators peg substantial revenue from such inter-city calls. Promoters of cellular projects plan to peg tariffs of such calls significantly lower than DoT charges so that subscribers have an incentive to shift to cellphone services to make long-distance calls.

For instance, if an STD call over the DoT network costs Rs 10 a minute, cellular operators plan to set tariffs at around Rs 4-5 per minute with the hope that subscribers will shift to their network.