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Per second billing not compulsory: TRAI
By siliconindia
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Friday, 09 October 2009, 23:01 IST |
9 Comments
New Delhi: The telecom operators would be free to offer various tariff plans to their subscribers including per second billing scheme along with fixing the tariffs per second, said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday.
This announcement could be a relief to the telecom operators, as putting per second billing model mandatory would have struck their revenues. The telecom companies are already facing low revenues per subscriber.
As per the 'per second billing' model, the customers would have been charged one paisa per second, rather than being charged for minutes they talk.
"We are not looking at mandating per second billing for operators. We would float a consultation paper on it and decide only if the industry sees benefits in the system," said JS Sharma, Chairman, TRAI. The regulator plans to issue a consultation paper by the end of this year.
"Operators can offer it along with other plans. It does not mean we will fix the tariff. When we make recommendation on this issue, we will keep in view the interest of operators as well as consumers," added Sharma.
TRAI had earlier said that it plans to ask all operators to charge customers on a per second basis so that they can enjoy the benefit of paying only for their usage. The telecom operators had expressed concerns over the sustainability of future revenue growth in a highly competitive marketplace.
Tata DoCoMo and the new entrant Sistema Shyam have introduced the per second billing model to their customers.
