Regulatory overreach?

There is no country in the world where the regulator has used the mobile termination charges regime to compel a change of technology

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) regulation on the mobile termination charges (MTC) has invited critical commentary in this paper and elsewhere (September 24 editorial, Business Line; September 23, The Financial Express; September 28, Mint). My article in this paper questioned the rationale for the decision. Some amplification is necessary. More importantly, the long-term future of the industry merits serious discussion.

Trai’s justification for its decision was: Full IP networks have close to zero MTC; IP networks are the future and telcos must be coaxed to invest and move to such technology; and, calculating MTC on the LRIC pure methodology.

First,