TRAI slashes call termination charges from 14 paise to 6 paise per minute

The Indian telecom regulator on Tuesday came out with a regulation where it has more than halved the call termination charges from mobile to mobile to 6 paise per minute effective from October 1, 2017.

"For mobile to mobile, termination charge has been reduced from 14 paise per minute to 6 paise per minute with effect from October 1, 2017," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement.

It said: "Such a revision in the mobile termination charge is in line with the international trends."

Domestic termination charges are the charges payable by a telecom service provider (TSP) whose subscriber originates the call, to the TSP in whose network the call terminates.

It further added: "From January 1,



2020 onwards the termination charge for all types of domestic calls shall be zero."

It said for other types of calls (such as wire-line to mobile, wire-line to wire-line and wire-line to mobile) the termination charge would continue to remain zero.

The TRAI said: "Further, the cost of termination of calls will drastically come down over a period of two years and very small residual value, if any, can be absorbed by the TSPs in their tariff offerings. As a result, the Authority prescribes a Bill and Keep regime for the wireless to wireless calls effective from the January 1, 2020."

The prevailing Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) Regulation was notified on February 23, 2015 and came into effect from March 1, 2015.