Dhirendra TripathiMoneycontrolTelecom companies, which currently find themselves in a maze of tariff orders, may have only one book to refer to from next year if the regulator goes ahead with its current line of thinking. The plan is also influenced by the rising role of mobile services in daily life -- from being a mere calling device to one that enables banking.
First rolled out in 1999, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s Telecommunication Tariff Order – internally referred to as ‘TTO’ -- has undergone as many as 61 amendments. The order governs tariffs of all things telecom – calls, data, SMS, telemarketing messaging and so on. With such wholesales changes over the years, the regulator now feels it is time to compile them into one set of rules that telecom companies could refer to.
The tariff orders even list out the areas that are under forbearance – those aspects of telecom services, like say voice calls, where TRAI explicitly doesn’t intervene and instead leaves it to the competing market forces to play out.
Now with 61 changes -- the last one being on USSD-based mobile banking that allows customers to do banking transactions through codes -- the tariff regime has become one giant collection of several orders that often leads to confusion amongst various stakeholders.
The original tariff order and subsequent amendments even covered the now-defunct services like telex and telegraph.
"The time has come to compile all the tariff orders under one book. Some time next year, say by second quarter, we plan to compile all of it under one fresh order, removing the unnecessary ones like say those on telex,” a TRAI official told Moneycontrol.
He also pointed out that data services, a non-existent offering till only a few years ago, were a major revenue driver for telecom companies and could need a fresh approach in terms of pricing to promote Digital India."We are often faced with a situation where some industry player comes to us today with a copy of some tariff orders passed several years ago. That tariff order itself may not be relevant any more but it makes us go scurrying for the relevant existing order that may be at variance with the one being cited by the company official," the TRAI official said.
He said the new tariff order make sure such confusion didn’t persist and that stakeholders had one set of rule book to refer to. He said the plan did not need any consultation process with the stakeholders.
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