TRAI Reconsidering International Call Charges Structure

Telecom regulator Trai on Friday began an industry-wide discussion to review the regulatory regime for international call termination charges that were lowered to 30 paise per minute last year.

Issuing the consultation paper on review of interconnection usage charges (IUC) in this regard, Trai said that in case of termination charge for international incoming call, the last amendment was carried out in 2018. That review had brought down the termination charge for international incoming call to wire line and wireless networks to 30 paise per minute with effect from February 1, 2018. This had marked a 43 per cent reduction in international termination charge (paid by international operators to local networks that receive calls) which had previously been pegged at 53 paise a minute.

“While notifying the last amendment, the Authority noted that it shall closely monitor the trends and patterns of International Long Distance (ILD) voice traffic in the country. The Authority, also noted that, if it deems necessary, may review International Termination Charge (ITC) from time to time,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a statement.

“The domestic market composition is changing from voice centric to data centric, and the tariff offerings are changing from pricing of individual products like voice, data, messages etc. to bundled offers comprising of voice, data, and messages together,” it said.