No licence fee for voice mail service — Trai

Observing that voice mail service could become popular due to the low tele-density in the country, the market regulator said that the existing practice of unlimited number of voice mail and audiotex operators in a service area should be continued.

The present licences have been issued based on city municipal limits, which were local areas a few years ago. Since the scope of a local area has been enlarged to cover short distance charging area, the authority has recommended that content service providers be given licences to cover SDCA on the basis of local dialling.

While Trai had not insisted on the entry fee, it has recommended that a performance bank guarantee of Rs 3 lakh on the lines of category `C’ ISP licences should be obtained.

The economic reason for limiting the number of carriers has been the `natural monopoly’ enjoyed by certain telecom carriers, it said.

"Since no such constraint is applicable to voice mail/audiotex service, which is a content service provided by servers or especially programmed computers, placed at the edge of public networks such as PSTN, PLMN and Internet, no limit on the number of service providers should be imposed," Trai said.

This is in consonance with the government policy on Internet content service providers. "The authority sees no reason to deviate from this policy, which has been well received by investors – both domestic and foreign, and has increased competition," it added.

There should be no bar on accessing these services on STD call basis even though Trai has recommended that the content service providers should be given a licence to cover the short distance on the basis of local dialling.

"The authority would not like to regulate other charges such as activation charges, monthly subscription fees, choice of mail box number, reconnection/restoration charges and transfer to multiple mail boxes for the service," Trai said.

Licenses shall be granted for 15 years with provision for extending the same for another five years. The existing licensees should also be allowed the same licensing period. The authority recommended that existing voice mail operators should be allowed to migrate to the new licensing regime with effect from April one, 2001. The other conditions such as provision of access lines to public networks such as PSTN, PLMN as well as leased lines, and the terms and conditions should be identical to those applicable for the Internet.

Tariff forbearance will be applicable on the lines of Internet policy subject to periodical review, to safeguard customers’ interest, the regulator said.