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Need to review basic telephony tariffs: TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday said there was a need to review tariffs for basic telecom services as the large reduction in long distance rates had substantially reduced margins for operators.

As the first step towards this exercise, TRAI has released a consultation paper on 'Tariffs for basic services' providing a framework and possible approaches for regulating basic service tariffs and interconnect usage charges.

The paper focuses on certain key principles relating to regulation of tariff for basic services and examines the evolving structure of the basic service market with an analysis of the degree of competition that is likely to arise in the near future, a TRAI release said.

It would examine the changes in the tariffs for basic services in the past years including the substantial changes that have taken place due to the introduction of competition in the national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) markets.

The authority has invited written responses on the consultation paper by October 25, 2002.

The paper also addresses details regarding basic tariff review with respect to monthly rentals and call charges besides a short exposition on the tariffs for dial up access to Internet.

TRAI said it was of the view that it was important to consider these tariffs to encourage a faster spread of Internet.

The paper provided details on the interconnection usage charge regime for NLD calls giving estimates prepared by the TRAI for origination, termination and carriage charges for NLD traffic, which was intended to be used as the basis for discussion on this issue.

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