Mobile telecom tariffs may come down with the government admitting that termination charges should be reduced from the existing level of 30 paise a minute and has sought Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) recommendations on the same.
"I feel that termination charges should come down. We have asked Trai's recommendations on a priority basis (on this issue)," Telecom Minister A Raja said at the Economic Editors' Conference here.
Asked by how much the termination charge should be reduced from the existing level of 30 paise a minute, the minister refused to indicate saying "that is Trai's job to work it out".
Termination charge is the money given by an operator on whose network a call originates to the operator on whose network the call terminates.
The termination charge at 30 paise a minute per call for mobile telephony is considered high, especially by the new players. It was fixed five years ago and since then cost parameters and the traffic volumes have changed considerably.
Although it is over four months since Department of Telecom (DoT) referred the matter, Trai is yet to review charges for fixed and mobile services.
In June 2008, DoT asked Trai to review the termination charges based on present and projected cost and traffic on the premise that the volume has gone up.
"Given the central aim of the NTP'99 to provide telecom services at affordable rates and the unprecedented expansion of telecom services, DoT suggests that a review of the mobile termination charges, based on present and projected cost and traffic, is undertaken by Trai on priority basis and in a time bound manner," DoT officials said.
The new mobile operators, who have been given licenses in January this year and as they are in the process to start services, review of termination charges would be crucial for them to compete in the market especially in the urban areas.
