Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Trai sets the ball rolling for CPP regime

BS Economy Bureau

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has kickstarted the process to introduce the Calling Party Pays regime for cellular services by releasing a consultation paper and inviting comments from interested parties.

This has also sounded the bugle for yet another battle between basic operators and cellular service providers, after the issue of limited mobility.

Under CPP, the cellular mobile subscriber does not pay for an incoming call. Instead, a supplementary charge is levied on the calling party and the same is collected by the operator who generates the call and passes it on to the mobile operator.

So while a cellular subscriber will get lower bills, it also means that a basic services customer will have to pay a higher tariff for calling into the cellular network.

The regulator felt that introduction of CPP would entail complex inter-connect tariffs which may create confusion among the operators.

Some of the important policy issues thrown open for public consultation by Trai include the likely benefits of CPP to various stakeholders especially consumers, whether CPP should be made optional for both operator and subscriber and whether to make it applicable to all calls terminating at the mobile network.

Trai has asked interested parties to submit their comments on all these issues by June 12.

Powered by

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff-Business Standard Special
The Budget 2001-2002 Special
Money
Business News

Tell us what you think of this report