TRAI’s come one step nearer to abolishing all charges for calls made within India or am i expecting too much.
Well the news is that TRAI allows ISP’s to offer unrestricted Internet telephony services, a move that will boost competition in the domestic long distance segment and lower STD tariffs. Till before this ISPs were not permitted to provide unrestricted Internet Telephony though they have an IP-based infrastructure.
TRAI says that this move will curtail grey market tendencies. Now, to understand how the rates will come down - the STD service providers would be connected to ISPs through publicInternet wherein the two service providers would have mutual agreement for the same. Now the caller can make calls frompersonal computer to fixed lines/mobile phones. Read the rest of this entry »
“As various service providers have been given licences in different areas at different periods of time, the Authority feels that keeping the subscriber base as the criteria for deciding the priority of allotment shall be against the level playing field and the principle of equity,” TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra said in a letter to Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura.
He said that Department of Telecom (DoT) may consider the auction route for allotment of spectrum in the 800 MHz band (spectrum for CDMA players) with the highest bid received from GSM operators as the reserve price.
This would ensure equity, level playing field and optimal pricing in allotment of CDMA spectrum for 3G services, he added.
The subscriber base of CDMA network of the service provider in any service area is a result of different environment and cannot muster the “test of fairness if it was to become the basis of priority”, TRAI said.