Telecom Minister A Raja today indicated that termination charge, a levy paid by an operator to another on whose network the call ends, can come down further which would result in lowering of mobile tariffs.
"I requested the operators, the termination charge can come down by 2010 and accordingly tariffs can be reduced," the minister told reporters after meeting with CEOs of telecom companies here.
He said the local call charges can come down to as low as 10 paise a minute and STD tariffs to just 25 paise per minute.
"I have also asked them to utilise optimally the USO fund to enhance telecom infrastructure in rural areas. The government is in process to simplify the rules for getting funds from the kitty," he said.
The government is having over Rs 16,000 crore in the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund, a kitty for subsidising rural operations.
He said increasing the rural teledensity was top priority of the government and the operators must go to rural India and set up telecom infrastructure there.
The government has set up a target of having 10 million broadband subscribers in rural areas in the next two years and asked the service providers to make efforts to meet the targets.