It8217;s party time for cellphone users

NEW DELHI, AUG 27: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI is finalising a package to reduce the rentals for cellphones and the ...

NEW DELHI, AUG 27: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI is finalising a package to reduce the rentals for cellphones and the airtime charges for cell calls. The current rental of Rs 600 per month, is likely to be cut by 15 per cent, bringing down the monthly rental bill to Rs 510, as per the present proposals being considered by the TRAI. Apart from this, the peak time airtime rate of Rs 6 per minute call on the cellphone will also be cut by around 15 per cent bringing the rate down to Rs 5.10 per minute.

The cut in rates have resulted from the recent migration to a revenue sharing regime allowed for private cell phone companies, instead of the earlier fixed licence fee regime.

Apart from this, the charges for calls made from a normal landline phone to a cellphone, which will be applicable as soon as incoming calls on cellphones are made free referred to as the Calling Party Pays or CPP, will also be slashed by around 30 per cent.

The proposals are likely to be announced by TRAI when they hold their open house discussions on the date for launching CPP on Tuesday next week. These proposals will allow Government operator 8212; the Department of Telecommunications DoT, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL and private cellphone operators to give their reactions to the TRAI proposals which would be considered by the authority before making the rates effective.

The landline to cellphone charge which was fixed by the TRAI at Rs 3.60 in their tariff proposals announced in March earlier this year, would reduce the rate of the call from the landline phone to the cellphone to around Rs 2.50 per minute. The TRAI8217;s original tariff plan had stated that of this charge, 85 per cent would go to the cellphone operator and 15 per cent would be retained by the landline phone owner 8212; DoT/MTNL/private basic services company as the case may be.

8220;This is an area of debate even within the TRAI,8221; says a source. With two companies in Calcutta 8212; Usha Martin and Modi Telstra 8212; already launching zero charges for incoming calls, without demanding their 85 per cent share from the DoT on these calls, there may be pressure on the TRAI to leave this untouched. However, other cellphone operators may want their share to be given, which is why the TRAI may restrict the reduction in the rate by 30 per cent and discuss other possibilities with private companies during the open house discussion.

The TRAI had originally set August 1 as the date for launching the CPP. This deadline, however, was missed as the DoT demanded more time to upgrade software in exchanges across the country to read the change and bill customers accordingly. The new date for this is likely to be November 1 now.