8th July, 2002
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India  


PRESS RELEASE

TRAI RELEASES CONSULTATION PAPER ON TARIFFS FOR CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SERVICE

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released a Consultation Paper on ‘Tariffs for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service". The Consultation Paper presents a framework and proposals in respect of tariffs for cellular mobile telephone service.

TRAI specified its first standard tariff for cellular mobile in 1999. Since then, the cellular industry has expanded considerably as a result of diverse tariffs and service options made available by the service providers. Consumers today have a number of tariff options due to the technological and market developments for cellular mobile. The Consultation Paper released today has the following objectives.

    1. To bring tariffs in line with the changes in costs to ensure a larger subscriber base and increased usage of the service.

    2. To examine positioning of cellular mobile service not as a premium service, but as an important means to increase teledensity in the country.

    3. To find measure which will make cellular tariffs consumer friendly and promote its coverage throughout the country.

The Consultation Paper presents the framework of analysis and the proposals with respect to tariff regulation policy. Inputs have been invited from the stakeholders in the light of the trends witnessed in the past and likely to arise in the future. Based on detailed information on costs, roll out, sources of revenues and subscriber base obtained by the Authority, the paper gives cost based estimates of monthly rental and airtime charge, and analyses them in the background of the tariffs prevailing in the market. A number of different questions have been raised, including whether the present mode of tariff regulation in the cellular mobile sector should continue. These questions are posed within the framework which takes account of both the likely developments in the market as well as a normated cost based estimate for monthly rental.

The Authority has invited written responses by the closing hours of 22nd July, 2002, preferably accompanied by Floppy Diskette/Email to TRAI.

For more details, please see the TRAI web site at "www.trai.gov.in".
 
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