The Hindu Business Line : Review of termination charges may take time

New Delhi, Nov. 27 The telecom regulator has said that review of termination charges, as suggested by the Department of Telecom, is a complex exercise especially since the operators are not forthcoming in providing adequate data.

Termination charges are paid by the operator on whose network the call originates to the operator on whose network the call ends. This fee is determined by the TRAI and has been fixed at 30 paise a minute.

The Department of Telecom has now asked the regulator to review this fee on the grounds that lowering the charge would enable cheaper mobile tariffs. New operators who are about to launch their mobile services are also keen to have a lower termination rate.

While TRAI has said that it will issue a consultation paper to discuss the issue in December, it said that a review cannot be done in a hurry. “There is no short cut to this exercise. It would be pertinent to mention that British regulator Ofcom initiated preliminary consultation on termination charge in June 2005 and detailed consultation in March 2006 and the regulatory statement was finally issued in March 2007.”

Sources indicated that Indian authorities may also take at least a year before new termination charges are finalised.

“As evident from all previous consultation processes, the IUC review exercise is a complex exercise and any undue haste may prove to be detrimental to the industry and the consumers and give rise to avoidable litigation. Any half-baked effort may re-open issues that have already been fairly settled,” the TRAI said.

As part of the pre-consultation process all the operators were asked to submit the cost-model, data assumptions and the result of their calculations. However, most service providers have not provided the data.

“This makes the job of review even more complicated for TRAI. Also the industry has presented different viewpoints including methodology to determine interconnection usage charges,” the regulator said.

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