Gud Newws Guys :TRAI Allows Differential Tariffs

ubscibers and operators of mobile services can now rejoice! The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), not to ban mobile operators from offering customers intra-network discounts. TRAI says that its move is in the best interests of consumers.

Across the globe, operators offer lower tariffs to subscribers for calls terminating within their own networks. In India too, most mobile operators follow the same tradition.
For example, Airtel-to-Airtel local calls cost Re 1 per minute, while Hutch-to-Hutch local calls cost 50 paise per minute under their "Talk 299" scheme. Reliance Infocomm charges 40 paise per minute, for calls made to its own network. Further, large mobile operators charge lower STD calls for intra-circle networks.

Earlier DoT had planned to issue a directive, asking telecom operators to withdraw discriminating tariffs for intra-network calls. If such a directive had indeed been issued, over 60m mobile subscribers would have suffered the burden of increased tariffs.

Regarding its latest ruling, TRAI told DoT that it had analysed the tariff plans of various service providers and the resultant findings were that these tariff plans are both consumer friendly and increase competition.

TRAI said that its decision was in keeping with the objectives of DoT and that if a directive against intra-network discounts had been allowed, there would be a demand for similar discounts with respect to fixed-mobile and fixed-fixed calls.

According to official sources, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed DoT not to bypass TRAI and to seek its prior approval before going ahead with any tariff-related directive.