The Hindu Business Line : TRAI seeks monthly data on international call traffic

IN a bid to tackle the growing grey market in the international long distance segment, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has ordered all operators in the country to submit traffic data on a monthly basis.

TRAI has sent notices to fixed line operators, cellular operators and long distance licence holders to give details of the incoming and outgoing international call traffic starting February.

It said that the move is aimed at creating an institutional system to ensure that the traffic of legitimate international call providers is not under reported and grey market calls on this count are kept in check.

Access providers (cellular and fixed line operators) have been asked to give details of the call traffic for each Circle they are operating in and how much traffic is being given to which long distance operator. Similarly, long distance operators have been asked to give details on how much traffic they are getting from each access provider and how much is being terminated on each access provider's network every month.

Grey market in the international long distance (ILD) segment has been a problem for a long time now with some operators resorting to underreporting to escape payment of levies like the Access Deficit Charge. This is primarily due to the huge difference in the arbitrage levels between a legal call and those that come through the illegal exchanges.

For example, a US to India call through the grey channel can be made for as low as 43 paisa a minute. The same call on the legal route costs more than 10 times. According to industry estimates companies in the ILD segment are losing between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 2,000 crore in revenue a year to grey market operators, and the Government Rs 3,000 crore every year.

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