BT Online New Delhi Last Updated: September 19, 2017 | 21:25 IST
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) decreased domestic termination charges more than half from 14 paisa per minute to 6 paisa per minute for calls between two mobile numbers. This is expected to bring down mobile call costs in coming days. The telecom regulator is planning to do away with interconnection charges entirely by January 1, 2020.
Domestic termination charges is the amount paid by the telecom operator whose user begins the call. It is paid to the telecom operator who receives the call. The changes in domestic termination charges will be put into effect from October 1, 2017, as stated by a press statement by the TRAI.
Meanwhile, any other type of call - between landline to landline, or landline to mobile phones - will continue to be exempted from all termination charges.
Notably, the telecom disruptor Reliance Jio has been advocating lowering termination charges on grounds that it will benefit the customers. On the other hand, other established telecom service providers have been strongly opposing any such decrease as it will hit their revenue which they receive from these interconnection charges.
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and other incumbent telecom operators have even been calling for an increase in interconnection charges and even benchmarking them according to the actual cost. Jio is expected to benefit from these recent cut in charges as it will bring down its overall expenditure, reports said.
