LIRNEasia » telecom operator

India: Interconnection charges to change after 2002-3?

Chanuka Wattegama — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:29:16 +0000

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to review interconnect usage charges (IUC) after they were fixed back in 2002-03 and not revised since then.

TRAI has set the ball rolling to revise IUC, particularly termination charge from Rs0.3/minute to Rs0.1/minute and carriage charge from Rs0.65/minute to as low as Rs0.16/minute.

IUC is payable by one telecom operator to others for use of their networks either for origination, termination or carriage of a call. Inter-operator calls constitute a major part of the total calls handled by the telecom network. These charges are important as they can transfer network costs between operators.

Although reduction in these charges would lead to a lower tariff for customers, as benefits would be passed on due to intense competition, it would dent the profitability of telecom operators mainly Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular.

Read the full story here.

Bharti Airtel to launch Sri Lanka operations in December 2008

Chanuka Wattegama — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:03:27 +0000

Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel will launch operations in Sri Lanka in December, a top official announced on Monday.

“We will roll out the services next month as all formalities are done and issues relating to inter-connectivity have been sorted out,” Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman and managing director Rajan Mittal told reporters in New Delhi.

The telecom giant had been facing problems of inter-connection, with local carriers not willing to give inter-connections to the company.

Source: Hindustan Times, Nov 04

India: BSNL to share network with private telecom operators

Chanuka Wattegama — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:40:42 +0000

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Monday said it has decided to share its network with private telecom companies for roaming agreements.

The company will sign the first roaming agreement with new telecom operator Swan Telecom, a BSNL internal circular of the management committee meeting said.

This facility will enable subscribers to enjoy seamless connectivity throughout the country. “The memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard may be signed with the seeking operators initially for six months only on non-exclusive and experimental basis,” the circular said.

The circular also added that the company would revise the initial charge of 52 paise a minute for every outgoing call after six months, and the incremental additional cost of the upgrade of equipment to provide roaming facilities will be borne by the private operators.

It further added that the idle capacity of the network would be used to earn extra revenue. While all private telecom companies have roaming agreements with each other, BSNL, till date, has not opened its networks for roaming deals.

Source: The Economic Times, India