The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will issue a fresh order on the Interconnect User Charge regime in July, replacing the existing order that came into effect from May, its chairman Pradeep Baijal said on Monday.
Talking to reporters in Bangalore after the first open house consultation on IUC issues, he said consultations would be held in Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi before the final order was drafted.
He said TRAI had received several communications with respect to both the tariff regime and the IUC in which concerns were expressed over the sustainability of the IUC regime over time and consistency among the different schedules of the IUC regulation.
It was decided to hold discussions with stakeholders and make improvements in the order to encourage a competitive market and discourage growth of grey area traffic.
The major topics under which consultations were held in the open house included IUC, access deficit charges, tariffs and calling party pays.
Baijal said the major reforms carried out in the sector had resulted in mobile phone services growing at a phenomenal rate.
The number of mobile users, which was 13 million last year, would double to 26 million by this year-end and surpass the fixed telephone capacity of 40 million by next year-end.
He said the next main concern of TRAI would be to ensure geographical spread of telephone services.
Several private basic and mobile operators expressed views against the ADC at the meeting. The ADC which had been worked out at Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) was aimed to compensate for the access deficit that arises for the basic services since the monthly rental and local call charges did not fully cover the relevant costs incurred by the operators.
Most of the participants felt that the amount worked out by TRAI was on the higher side.
UNI
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