STD, ISD rates to be slashed from Feb 1

In a major relief to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and consumers, the telecom tribunal on Monday refused to grant a stay, sought by MTNL, on the new access deficit regime starting from February 1, paving the way for lower long distance mobile calls.

Long-distance tariffs will crash from Tuesday with TRAI reducing the access deficit charge given to telecom operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd by up to 62 per cent.

Domestic long-distance call tariffs, for both fixed and cellular phones, will be lowered by up to 50 paise a minute, while international long-distance (ILD) calls are likely to be reduced by about Rs 2 a minute.

Local call tariffs, however, will remain unchanged.

TRAI had reduced the ADC component on STD calls from 80 paise a minute to 30 paise a minute for calls made over 200 km and from 50 paise a minute to 30 paise a minute for calls made between 50 km and 200 km.

On outgoing ISD calls, TRAI has brought down the deficit charges by 41 per cent to Rs 2.50 a minute from Rs 4.25.

The reduction in the charges could lead to a corresponding slash in the ISD tariffs.

A call to the US that now costs an average of Rs 16 a minute is likely to cost around Rs 14 a minute from February 1.

Deficit charges on incoming calls have also been decreased from Rs 4.25 a minute to Rs 3.25 a minute.

This is only an interim order and the matter has been posted for hearing on February 24.

It will still be open to Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal to consider Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd's petition on merits of the new ADC regime as the tribunal has already ruled that it had prima facie jurisdiction to adjudicate on matters relating to regulations.

Meanwhile, the tribunal allowed Association of Unified Service Providers of India's application to be treated as an appeal. AUSPI had earlier filed an application to intervene in the case.

TDSAT asked TRAI to give a reply to the main petition filed by MTNL and that of AUSPI within two weeks.

The tribunal has maintained that it has jurisdiction to hear the matter in the wake of TRAI questioning its role on matters challenging regulations, ADC being one of them.

Since TDSAT has not stayed the implementation of new ADC regime, which was challenged by MTNL in TDSAT, the high court's decision to adjourn the case to next week would not affect the implementation of new levy regime from February 1.

Encouarged by lower ADC rates, AirTel and Hutch have already announced reduction in their STD and ISD rates even though they still remain costlier than BSNL's.

AirTel and Hutch have reduced long distance tariffs by Rs 1.75 for ISD calls and 35 paise for STD calls.

A one minute call from BSNL's mobile phone to the US would cost Rs 7.20, while AirTel's and Hutch's postpaid subscribers would have to shell out Rs 14.24 (reduced) per minute from February 1. MTNL charges Rs 12 a minute for a call to the US.

When contacted, companies officials said each operator has different carriage charges with international operators and therefore tariffs would differ between operators.

In the domestic long distance (STD), both the private operators have reduced tariffs by 35 paise for calls to other networks. The tariff of Rs 2 a minute for an STD call between AirTel to AirTel is unchanged while to other mobiles and landlines it will be Rs 2.65 a minute.

The pre-paid users of both service providers would pay Rs 15.24 a minute to the US, the UK, Canada, SE Asia and SAARC countries, while to the Middle East it will cost Rs 18.24 a minute from February 1.

Additional input: Agencies