Telecom operators are divided on taking a decision on International Termination Charges (ITC), with Bharti Airtel and others seeking an increase, while some including Reliance Jio Infocomm and Tata TeleServices, demanding a reduction.
The International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) made a presentation to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman on Monday on ITC. This comes in wake of a reduction in domestic mobile termination charges (MTC) to 6 paise, from 14 paise, effective October 1.
Termination charges, which may be commercially negotiated or regulated, are charges which one telecom operator pays another for terminating calls on its network. While there are several models of payment, in India a calling party paying regime is followed.
The present ITC paid by operators in India is at 53 paise per minute. Airtel, the country’s largest operator by subscribers, wants ITC to be raised to ₹1 for both mobile and fixedline, while Vodafone India and Idea Cellular want it to be raised to ₹3.5 per minute but in a phased manner. Aircel is another operator which sought ITC to be raised to ₹1.
Reliance Communications, the company controlled by Anil Ambani, sought ITC to be brought down to zero.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, Tata TeleServices and Tata Communications have sought to bring it down to 6 paise, in line with the existing MTC rates, while ILDOs such as Videocon, Sify and Citilink wanted a revenue sharing model with access providers.