TRAI issued Regulation on domestic carriage charges

The telecom Regulatory Authority of India on 24 February 2015 issued the regulation on Telecommunication interconnection usage charges.

The regulation prescribed a revised domestic carriage charges. The regulation will particularly benefit users of fixed-line phones. The move aimed to promote investment in wireline networks, so that they may become an effective vehicle for the delivery of high-speed Internet in the country.

Highlights of the regulation

•The regulation has removed charges that a landline service provider has to pay to the other service providers for transmitting its customers' phone calls.

•The termination charge from fixed-line phones has been reduced from 20 paise per minute to zero, in case of mobile phones it has been slashed by 30 percent to 14 paise from 20 paise per minute.

•The regulation has decided to prescribe FTC (fixed termination) as well as MTC (mobile termination charge) for wireline to wireless calls as zero.