The Hindu Business Line : Key meeting today on new ADC policy — TRAI, DOT set to dial in One India tariff

Total ADC subsidy may be brought down from Rs 5,300 crore to Rs 3,200 crore
Revenue share on domestic calls at 1.99%
Subsidy burden more on ILD calls
Flat ceiling on carriage charges at 73 paise a minute

New Delhi , Feb.19

IN line with the suggestion made by the Department of Telecom, the telecom regulator is now looking to fix the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) at 1.99 per cent of the operator's revenue from domestic calls.

The telecom regulator also plans to bring down the carriage charges on national long distance services from a maximum of Rs 1.10 per minute to a flat fee of 73 paise a minute irrespective of the distance.

All this and other aspects of the new ADC regime will be discussed on Monday during a crucial meeting between Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the DoT.

Earlier, DoT had asked TRAI to consider pegging the ADC for domestic calls between 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent of the annual revenues. On the other hand, telecom operators had urged TRAI to fix only 1 per cent of the revenue as ADC. TRAI, on its part,was looking at two options, which proposed a revenue share between 1.4 per cent and 0.9 per cent of the annual revenue. At present, the charges are levied on a per minute basis on every call.

TRAI is also considering bringing down the carriage charge. Carriage charge is the fee collected by NLD operators from cellular and fixed line service providers for carrying STD calls on its network.

Most private operators are awaiting the TRAI decision on the carriage charges to announce their own version of the One India tariff plan since it forms the major part of carrying long distance calls.

On the international long distance segment, TRAI plans to continue with the existing system of charging ADC on a per minute basis though the rates are being lowered.

On incoming ILD calls, the ADC may be brought down from Rs 3.25 a minute to Rs 1.20 while on outgoing calls the rates may be brought down from Rs 2.50 per minute to 50 paise a minute.

While the subsidy burden is being shifted on incoming ILD calls, telecom operators said that not enough was being done to prevent grey market calls. The operators have also sought a refund of the excess ADC collected so far.

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