NEW DELHI, India-The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s latest directive that tariffs of service providers should be “non-discriminatory” could force leading CDMA operator Reliance, as well as state-owned BSNL, to change their tariff plans.
Reliance announced a differential tariff for domestic long distance calls made within its network and those made outside the network. Within the Reliance network, a subscriber trunk dialing (STD) call will cost 40 paise (US$0.01) per minute, while it will be higher for calls made to other service providers’ networks.
However, the company in a statement on Tuesday said its tariff plans will be non-discriminatory and fully compliant with the regulatory framework, including the interconnect usage charges (IUC) regime, which comes into effect 1 May.
BSNL has reduced pulse rates for calls from its fixed-line network to cellular networks, making fixed-to-mobile calls costlier. Cellular operators have termed this move discriminatory. BSNL also operates GSM services, but said its new tariff would apply to calls made from its fixed line to its cellular network as well.
