Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Dec 09, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications TRAI allows differential call charges Our Bureau
New Delhi , Dec. 8 THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday barred operators from offering their infrastructure to other operators at a different price to what they are offering to themselves. The decision will bring immediate relief to Internet service providers who were being charged a higher charge for leased lines being offered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). TRAI has, however, allowed operators to offer a special set of tariffs to their own customers and different tariffs to subscribers of any other operator when it comes to call charges. This means an operator like Airtel could offer a particular set of tariffs to its subscribers when they call within the Airtel network and different tariffs on calls made to another network. In the past, the telecom regulator disallowed tariff plans which offered lower differential airtime charge for calls terminating in the operator's own network. In the 33rd amendment to the Telecom Tariff Order notified today, TRAI said the service providers could offer differential tariffs for off-net (different networks) and on-net (own network) calls. But cases where such differential tariffs are anti-competitive or predatory aimed at lessening competition shall invite the regulatory attention. ``Vertical price squeeze is one anti-competitive conduct that may be engaged by an operator with significant market power providing service in both upstream and downstream markets in any service area where the operator controls certain services that are key inputs for competitors in downstream markets and where those same key inputs are used by the operator to compete in the same downstream market,'' the TRAI said.
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