Trai dials telcos for report on call routing

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked mobile operators to submit a report on the compliance of a government order allowing telephone calls within four circles to be treated as intra-circle for tariff purposes.

The move comes in the wake of sector tribunal TDSAT rejecting a plea last month by private mobile firms. The operators had challenged the regulator’s direction to discontinue differential tariffs within Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh — the four circles where the department of telecommunications had in May 2005 permitted inter-service area connectivity among service providers.

The arrangement for call routing and dialling in these states was different from other states. Calls within the four states were treated as intra-service calls, leading to a decline in tariffs charged by mobile operators. However, some private mobile firms specified higher tariffs for calls terminating in the mobile networks of BSNL and MTNL within these states.

The regulator found the differential tariffs to be discriminatory and felt these were preventing consumers from getting full advantage of the government decision to allow inter-service area connectivity within the four states. Trai issued a direction in February 2006 to mobile firms in these four states to discontinue differential tariffs.

The regulator said it has asked all mobile companies in these states to report compliance with its direction and intimate the date from which the service providers have been complying with the direction. Subsequently, Trai intervened against the discriminatory tariff of Hutch (Aircel Digilink) in Uttar Pradesh (East) service area.