The Hindu Business Line : DoT crackdown on global calling card providers

In a bid to curb grey international long distance calls, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has made it mandatory for all companies selling global calling cards in the country to get a no objection certificate from the Government.

DoT has also put a condition that these calling cards cannot be used in India for making outgoing calls as well as incoming calls.

Foreign companies selling international calling cards will have to certify that they have blocked calls of Indian origination on such cards. The move is aimed at addressing security concerns arising out of illegal ILD calls.

Fiat to operators

DoT has also asked operators that the cards being offered to Indian customers will be for use only outside India. Just like cellular operators have been asked to keep identity proof of each of their subscribers, proper proof of the customer using calling cards will have to be maintained by the service providers.

The new guidelines also stipulates that the traffic originated in other country for termination in India will be routed through the valid ILD operators. This comes as a relief for ILD operators, such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication, as a number of small companies had begun to offer global calling cards in India at throw away tariffs.

However, these cards posed a security threat to the country as calls made may not necessarily be routed through legal channels all the time.

Huge grey market

There is huge grey market thriving in the ILD segment since settlement rates vary. DoT and the telecom regulator have been taking measures over the past few years to crack down on illegal operators.

While, on one hand, the regulator has tried to bring down the difference between the settlement rates for legal and illegal markets, DoT has been monitoring the sector closely for any possible loop hole.

More Stories on : Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Telecommunications

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