Good news for consumers! Call rates to fall soon

New Delhi, Feb 24: In a move which could reduce call rates of mobile and landline, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday slashed various interconnection charges that one operator pays to the other for using their network.

This move will particularly benefit users of fixed-line phones, who may soon get major benefits in terms of free monthly calls and minutes, says a Times of India report.

The report said the TRAI has reduced the termination charge from landline phones from 20 paise per minute to zero, and in mobile phones, it has reduced the charges by 30% to 14 paise from 20 paise per minute. Additionally, calls made from landline-to-landline or landline-to- mobiles will not include the interconnection charge, which was 20 paise earlier.

"This move will help fixed-line players like BSNL and MTNL to utilize their idle capacities and launch innovative plans. Also, their costs will come down," Arvind Kumar advisor to TRAI has been quoted as saying in the report.

"As more and more customers are seeking high speed data [Internet] services, wireless networks are increasingly finding it tough to meet the ever-rising data demand, particularly in a spectrum-constrained sector. Wireline networks, on the other hand, can deliver much higher speeds of data transfer," TRAI said in its new regulations.

OneIndia News