Reliance Jio, RCom, Videocon ask TRAI to abolish call termination charges

Sharp differences have emerged among telecom operators over call termination charges with the Ambani brothers opposing the levy, while Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone maintained it is needed to encourage investments mainly in rural areas.

In response to TRAI's consultation paper on review of interconnection usage charges, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, Anil Ambani-promoted RCom and Videocon have asked the regulator to abolish call termination charge, arguing that it makes phone call rates expensive for consumers and the advent of new technologies are reducing cost of operations.

"Continuance of IUC, which is only a subsidy for inefficient network, will prevent operators from moving to the newer technologies besides keeping the cost of service at a very high level which only results in higher cost to the consumer," Reliance Jio said in its submission.

On the other hand dominant players -- Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Aditya Birla group firm Idea and Indian arm of British telecom major Vodafone - have favored levying of call termination charge to encourage investments in the country, specially rural areas where people spend less.

"We support a cost-based termination charge, enabling all TSPs to recover the legitimate cost of the termination of a call on their network from other operators. Such a regime is essential to protect and increase network investments," Airtel said.

Interconnection is must among telecom networks for transmitting phone calls from one network to other. At present interconnection charges (IUC) are paid by one telecom operator to another for connecting call made by its subscriber to dialed number. These charges add up to determine phone call rates.

-PTI