Termination charge slashed,mobile tariffs may come down

Telecom regulator TRAI today lowered the domestic termination charge for operators by 33 per cent but the GSM service providers expressed disappointment and said there was no scope for reducing the tariffs. TRAI in its revised Interconnection Usage Charge IUC lowered the termination charge on all types of call domestic fixed to mobile or mobile to mobile to 20 paise a minute from existing 30 paise a minute but the GSM operators lobby COAI said that the charge should rather have been increased to 35 paise a minute. Termination charge is a fee paid by an operator on whose network a call starts to another on whose network the call ends. When asked whether TRAIs decision will result in tariff reduction,TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra said the mobile tariffs were under forbearance market driven and I cannot say that whether they should reduce tariffs or not. Industry experts said this initiative was expected to reduce the existing call rates by 25 per cent. Misra,however,asserted that the termination charge calculated by the TRAI were cost-based and not below the cost as claimed by the GSM lobby.