Idea Cellular has said that the decision by the telecom regulator to reduce mobile termination rates was riddled with egregious infirmities.
"The Authority’s verdict to cut IUC to a paltry 6p per minute, determined on the basis of a new cost methodology (Pure LRIC model) which brazenly ignores the stupendously high prices paid for the spectrum, – a key raw material without which mobile telephony services cannot be delivered - will negatively impact the already stressed financial health of the secto," Idea Cellular said.
"In an avowedly technology neutral policy regime, a regulation which should acknowledge both subscriber handsets ownership and incoming calling patterns has, instead, erroneously determined that only one technology benefits," the operator said adding that the revised IUC rate further jeopardises both rural coverage and connectivity.
The operator said that the Trai has not provided no economic rationale has been provided to justify how an already ‘lowest in the world’ IUC rate of 14p per minute, has been further lowered by nearly 60 per cent.