Basic operators see revenue growth

Mittal also said basic operators are happy that telecom tariffs are moving in line with international trends. Shyam Telecom director TR Dua felt that TRAI8217;s announcement would encourage subscribers to do greater number of STDs and further, reduction in the call-time would enable operators to improve their bottomline.

He said even though rentals have been hiked it would depend upon the kind of value-added package that an operator offers to its subscribers to improve reach.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd VSNL chairman and managing director Amitabh Kumar said the company should see a 10-15 per cent growth inits revenue on the back of a 30 per cent growth in outgoing international traffic in the new tariff regime.

Apart from this, quot;the cut in international tariffs would also enable us to offer the calling card facility and also come out with innovative tariffs in non-peak hours following the measures announced by TRAIquot;, Kumar added.

Among the announcement that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI made on Tuesday, significant was the creation of category of low user subscribers, which would comprise those making up to 500 metered calls per month of a billing cycle. For these subscribers, lower than average charge of Rs 0.80 per metered call in case of rural subscribers and Re 1 for urban subscribers have been specified.

In this category, the tariff would be Rs 250 per month per subscriber under exchange system with minimum of one lakh lines in both rural and urban users. In exchanges with 30,000 to 99,000 lines, the monthly rent has been fixed at Rs 180 per month and in exchanges with a capacity of1,000 to 29,999 lines, it would be Rs 120 per month.

In the same category, monthly subscription fee under exchange systems with capacity up to 999 in urban areas the subscription fee would be Rs 120 per month and Rs 70 per month for rural subscribers.

Free call allowance for urban subscribers is 60 metered calls per month of a billing cycle and 75 per month for rural users. TRAI stated that, in addition all other elements for rural package are to continue barring some changes in the second and third year.

TRAI has proposed a reduction in certain call charges. This includes, Re 0.80 per call for the first 500 calls in rural areas for all subscribers and Rs 1 in the urban areas. For all additional calls Rs 1.20 per call would be charged.

In case of coin collection boxes, local call from rural PCOs/VPT would continue to cost Re 1 and in case of PCOs Rs 1.20 per call would be charged.

TRAI has also announced a substantial decrease in the tariff for long distance calls. Over a period of three years thedomestic long-distance call tariff would go down by about 45 per cent and international call charges by about 50 per cent.

For STD calls to distances up to 50 km, TRAI has said the charge specified would be the same as for a local call.

For domestic STDs, the pulse rate for radial distance up to 50 km between two centres the pulse rate has been fixed at 180 seconds over the next three years.

In the category where the distance is above 50 km, the pulse rate would be 14 seconds, 15 seconds and 18 seconds, respectively. In the 200-500 km category, TRAI has proposed 5 seconds, 6.2 seconds and 6.8 seconds over three years. In 500 km-1000 km category, the proposed pulse rates are 3.5 seconds, 4.1 seconds and 4.6 seconds over the next three years and, in over 1,000 km category it would be 2.5 seconds, 3 seconds and 3.5 seconds in the same period.

The revised ISD pulse rates that TRAI has proposed include 2.5 seconds, 2.8 seconds and 3.3 seconds over three years for Saarc and other neighbouring countries.Further, it has proposed 1.5 seconds, 1.8 seconds and 2.3 seconds over three years in case of countries in Africa, Europe, Gulf, Asia and Oceania. And, countries in American continent and other places in western hemisphere would have pulse rates of 1.2 seconds, 1.5 seconds and 1.8 seconds over three years.