New telecom tariff structure deferred

NEW DELHI, Mar 29: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has decided to defer the implementation of new telecom tariff structure for ...

NEW DELHI, Mar 29: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has decided to defer the implementation of new telecom tariff structure for cellular and basic services by three to four weeks following representations from the private telecom industry and department of telecom.

TRAI will issue the fresh notification on Tuesday notifying the new dates for implementation of its modified tariff order. The new tariff structure is likely to now come into effect in the last week of April or early May, sources said.

Industry sources, however, said that the tariff structure for leased lines and paging services can come into effect from April 1, as originally ordered by TRAI. Indian Paging Services Association secretary general PN Uppal said: quot;We are ready to implement the new tariff from April 1. We will formally inform TRAI about it on Tuesday.quot; Officials of DoT and private basic and cellular service providers said they would need at least three to five weeks to implement the new tariff structure due to technicalreasons.

TRAI secretary Narinder Sharma said at the open house that the issue of revenue sharing between DoT and private telecom service providers would be decided by August. Earlier on Saturday, the Department of Telecommunication had requested the regulatory authority to implement the new tariff structure with effect from April 15. It may be recalled that the TRAI notification of March 15 sought to implement the tariff order from April 1.

Chairing the session, Sharma said that the regulator is in favour of an early implementation of the tariff order. He however noted that eight operators, including the Department of Telecommunication DoT had asked for an implementation time frame ranging from three weeks to five weeks.

Presenting their case, DoT officials said that the department would need at least three weeks to re-programme over 20,000 telephone exchanges spread all over the country in accordance with the new tariff structure. Private operators said that they could implement the new tariff withintwo weeks. The private operators can do so only after DoT has reconfigured its technical equipments and systems as they are rely on the department for inter-connectivity.