Telecom tariffs to go down as TRAI cuts call connect charge

 

In a bid to boost fixed line phone connections in the country, telecom regulator TRAI removed charges that a landline service provider has to pay to the other service providers for transmitting its customers' phone calls - a move that is likely to lead to lower tariffs.  

Now, calls made from landline-to-landline or landline-to-mobiles will not include the interconnection charge, which was 20 paise earlier.    

TRAI has also reduced network interconnection usage charges (IUC) on calls made from mobile phones by about 30 per cent to 14 paise per call from 20 paise earlier

Mobile subscriber base at the end of 2014 reached all time high at 94.39 crore, landline connections are only 2.7 crore.
State-run telecom companies BSNL dominates landline phone connections with 62.71 % market share followed by MTNL 13.04 %, Bharti Airtel 12.55%, Tata Teleservices 5.98 % and Reliance Communications 4.39%.Videocon's Quadrant, Vodafone and Sistema Shyam account for 1.2 %market share
Landline connections of private players are mainly meant for providing broadband connections

In Mobile segment, Bharti Airtel leads market with 23.01 % market share followed by Vodafone 18.93 %, Idea Cellular 15.95% , RCom 11.26%, BSNL 8.62 %, Aircel 8.33 %, Tata Teleservices 7.01 % and Uninor 4.62 %. Sistema Shyam, Videocon Telecom and MTNL account for about 2 % mobile service market share.