NEW DELHI: Under the new inter-connect usage (IUC) regime, while cellular users will get concessions like free incoming calls, fixed-line users in urban areas will have to pay more. "We have informed all the service providers that the IUC regime will come into effect from May 1," said Pradeep Baijal, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). "We will not allow any tariff that differentiate between one operator from another. All operators must make sure that their tariffs are IUC compliant from May 1," Baijal told a press conference here. He said all mobile phone operators have confirmed to the regulator that they would not charge their subscribers for incoming calls, whether from fixed, cellular or limited mobility mobile phone services. Interconnection agreements among telephone operators allow subscribers of one company to make or receive phone calls from other companies' network. Baijal said all fixed-line service providers had submitted their tariff plans for TRAI's approval. "A majority of the reported tariffs have been approved by the authority but for some tariff plans the authority has intervened whenever the plan violated regulatory principles," he added. The TRAI chief said the regulator would allow all service providers to implement "tariffs, which meet the general regulatory principles, without prior approval" for the month of May. "The operators should withdraw the tariff packages that are discriminatory, that is tariffs that discriminate between operators within the same class of service in terms of pulse duration or pulse charge," he said. All the tariffs offered by service providers from Thursday would have to be notified to TRAI within the first week of the next month. "The process of finalisation of tariffs for cellular and Wireless in Local Loop services may take the month of May and the tariffs decided by operators will, therefore, continue till May 31 or till a period that authority intervenes."
Source: IANS