It’s been about a year since TRAI, the telecom regulator, has asked operators to reduce SMS charges. However, with the Telcos not doing much about it, the regulator is all set to take some action, if the operators turn a deaf ear this time around. Apart from this, TRAI is of the view that the Indian user is being exploited on the ‘calling’ front. Users have been complaining of calls getting cut due to network problems and thus having to pay for a whole minute even if the call lasted for 10 seconds.

The regulator is all set to put pressure on the Telcos, which eventually lead to SMS charges witnessing a decrease and operators taking necessary steps to strengthen their connectivity. If this is not possible we might see some operators reducing pulse rate, which currently stands at 60 seconds. This has been done by players like BPL, who had a one second pulse rate i.e. you are only charged for the number of seconds you spoke. On the whole, the future looks bright and cheap for the Indian users.

We have seen telcos fight it out through price cuts, but this time around the price cuts aren’t an effect of the price war, but an effect of a review that is on its way. The plan, which has been put forth by DoT, asks for a review of the termination charge that is levied upon operators. In simple terms, when an Airtel user calls up a Vodafone users, this charge has to be paid by Airtel to Vodafone.

This also justifies the attractive rates operators offer for calls made on the same network. The current charge stands at 30paise per minute and hasn’t has stayed unchanged since five years. With the scenario changing, and India adding millions of users to the revolution, there is a need to review the charges.

We Say: While we have always seen things from the users perspective, this time around too, we believe this move would bring down rates. And with new entrants waiting for their turn to unleash their services, the review would further widen the scope of a price war. However, we expect the process to take some time to be implemented.

TRAI has released the official subscriber figures for the month of August which makes the wireless subscriber count to pass the 300 million mark. This feat was possible because of the 9.16 million wireless subscribers which were added during the month.

Every player managed add an adequate number of subscribers but Bharti Airtel managed to cram up more than 2 million subscribers which makes it the leader of the wireless segment.

TRAI, the messiah for prepaid users in India have come again to the rescue. Come September 15th, a new set of regulations have to be followed by the service providers which aims to give the subscribers an upper hand. The major highlight of the announcement was that prepaid subscribers across all service providers (new and existing) will get full talk time on every recharge.

Only an administrative fee not exceeding Rs. 2 per recharge and applicable taxes will be deducted from the recharge amount. Lifetime customers can also shift to a plan with lower denomination without paying any additional charges.

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India’s telecom market has been increasing by leaps and bounds adding around 8 million customers every month. And because of this growth, TRAI started keeping a tab on the level of congestion at the Point of Interconnection (POI) between the service providers.

The result may not be surprising because the two largest operators in India face the congestion problem. Bharti Airtel from the GSM front leads the pack followed by CDMA giant, RCom. The most congested circles are Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, North East and Himachal Pradesh.

Note: POI signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. This parameter also reflects as to how effective is the interconnection between two networks.

Indian telecom users enjoy the cheapest call rates. And with a new move from TRAI, it is bound to get more cheaper. They have allowed ISPs to carry out unrestricted internet telephony. This means cellular operators can provide long distance telephony services at lower cost and in turn reduced rates for the consumers. Cheap rates for Voice over IP (VoIP) is also in the offing.

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