TRAI to review tariff rules, numbering plan with telcos

A proposal was also made to put in place a framework to avoid the crunch in mobile numbers that is currently being faced by the Centre.

TRAI, trai, Telcos, tarrif plans, TRAi tarrif plans, phone number, phone number plans Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Technology news

TRAI chairman had called for a meeting with officials of telecom companies’ on Friday to discuss the industry’s roadmap and draw an agenda for the issues that might be taken up during the ongoing calendar year.

To get rid of the obsolete rules and regulations governing the communications sector, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will constitute a committee comprising its officials and executives of telecom companies to revisit the old tariff orders, regulations, licensing framework.

“We have agreed to form a committee consisting of Trai officers and service providers’ representatives, which will suggest what are the provisions that have become obsolete and need to be changed,” Trai chairman RS Sharma said after meeting with top officials of telcos on Friday.

“We (the committee) will work on important issues within this calendar year to revisit tariff orders, regulations and licensing framework, and examine whether some of them have become obsolete in the wake of new technology,” he added.

Sharma had called for a meeting with officials of telecom companies’ on Friday to discuss the industry’s roadmap and draw an agenda for the issues that might be taken up during the ongoing calendar year.

Chairman and managing director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd Anupam Shrivastava, who was also present at the meeting, sought for regulatory intervention in the area of infrastructure sharing in order to bring down the operational costs of an operator, in addition to improving service quality. Shrivastava said that a cap be imposed on the cost for sharing of infrastructure.

A proposal was also made to put in place a framework to avoid the crunch in mobile numbers that is currently being faced by the Centre. “We have also discussed mobile numbering plan. India has close to 100 crore subscribers and 80 crore numbers have allocated to fixed line phones although the actual number is less. The purpose was to see how we could avoid crunch,” Sharma said.