The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday reduced mobile termination charge from the current 20 paise per minute to 14 paise.
The move will essentially benefit players with smaller market share like Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Uninor, Sistema and Videocon. Larger players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea would have to take a hit on revenues coming from termination charges which would be under 10 per cent.
It is possible the smaller players can pass on benefits to consumers in the form of reduced tariffs which can act as an irritant for the bigger players in some circles.
Another notable feature of the new interconnect usage regime governing the termination charge is that it removes any such charge on calls emanating between fixed line to wireless and vice-versa.
Earlier, there was no distinction between fixed and mobile as far as termination charges were concerned.
While Trai feels that removing termination charges between fixed and wireless and vice-versa would benefit operators with a large market share of landline phones like BSNL, the latter does not share the same view.
Since landline phones are declining, the removal of charges can act as an incentive for them to devise tariff packages to attract customers. Similarly, in the opposite case, mobile operators can now provide the same rate for calls from mobile to fixed lines.