Termination charges are the one paid by an operator, from whose network call originates, to a service provider on whose network the call is terminated.
Currently, the charges have been fixed at Rs 0.30 a minute and are considered too high. Moreover, the charges were fixed in 2003 and since then the cost of network and services have come down by more than 50 per cent.
"Given the central aim of telecom policy to provide services at affordable rates, it is suggested that a review of the mobile termination charges, based on present and projected cost and traffic is undertaken by Trai on a priority in a time bound manner," DoT said in a letter to Trai.
Some of the operators have pointed out that cost-based termination charges would be less than Rs 0.10 a minute. If implemented, the existing operators would have to forego a substantial portion of their revenues, while new cellular operators would find it easy to establish themselves.
"One of the major component of tariff is the termination charge, which is not under forbearance (not decided by market forces). The high termination charges have potential to stifle competition and may disturb the level playing field," DoT feels.