Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Mobile-to-mobile STD rates set to fall from Jan 26

Decks have been cleared for reduced rates for mobile-to-mobile long distance calls from Saturday onwards with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and private STD player Bharti reaching an agreement to implement the new tariffs.

Thus the rates of mobile to mobile STD calls will be same as those offered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

This is, however, less than the rates announced by a consortium of cellular operators earlier who entered into an agreement with the Bharti group to use its STD network- IndiaOne -- for carrying the traffic.

As per the interim order issued by TRAI: "For calls originating in an access providers network and transited on national long distance network, technical arrangements must be put in access provider's network so as to analyse the carrier access code dialed by the subscribers and route the calls to the NLD (national long distance) operators chosen by him."

Interestingly, the regulator has said that in the absence of a final view (by TRAI) on the issue of interconnect which includes the situation of customer not dialing the specified code for NLD operator of his choice (Bharti or BSNL), as an interim measure, the default calls would be equally distributed between the two operators.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
STD rate cut forces pvt sector to rethink pricing strategy
Bharti joins race in STD price war; slashes rates in Haryana

Tell us what you think of this report