BT Online Last Updated: September 20, 2017 | 11:42 IST
The Reliance Industries stock on Wednesday rose higher in early trade after regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) announced slashing of the interconnection usage charge (IUC), the charge paid by telcos for mobile calls made by their customers to networks of other companies to 6 paise a minute, from 14 paise at present.
The biggest beneficiary of the order will be Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Reliance Industries. Reliance Jio is offering free voice calls on its network.
The Reliance Industries stock rose as much as 4 percent or 32 points in early trade to hit a 52-week high of 872 level on the BSE.
At 11:24 am, the stock was trading 1.68 percent or 14 points higher at 854 level on the BSE.
The new interconnection usage charge (IUC) rate of 6 paise per minute will be applicable from October 1, 2017, and will be completely eliminated from January 1, 2020.
Mobile tariffs will fall if the operators pass on the benefit of reduced IUC charge to customers.
However, it still remains to be seen whether this will eventually translate in to lower phone bills for consumers as incumbent telecom players claim their financial stress will increase.
Established operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular wanted the termination rate to be raised and benchmarked against the actual cost but Trai has gone ahead with the reduction of the interconnect usage charge.
