Student Edition   Industry Edition  
 
Telecom companies gear up

The country's leading telecom companies are gearing up to offer one single tariff for the entire country, called the 'One India' plan which experts say would result in erosion of average revenue per user. Although these companies will offer these services at lower rates, they expect to neutralise the lower revenues through higher volumes.

Following Reliance Infocomm which was to go off the starting block earlier this month are BSNL, Tata Tele, Hutch and Airtel. Idea has not evinced interest in joining the bandwagon.

The new plan which promise to have a uniform STD slab for both fixed line and mobile services, irrespective of distance of calls has been delayed by several weeks. Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran had scheduled it for 1 st January 2006, but telecom experts say the companies have yet to finalise their tariff structure and also want to time their launch around Republic Day, January 26 2006.

Telecom experts say that players will begin their roll out to stay in contention within the industry and with Reliance already in the fray by offering Rs one for any call, other players will soon have to follow. BSNL officials say that the scheme would be launched by January 26, 2006, which was earlier slated for January 14, 2006.

The new plan is expected to reduce mobile STD rates but without rentals remaining untouched. Experts say that the new plan can even have two tariffs, one for local and another for domestic long distance.

Reliance Infocomm became the first private operator to extend the new tariff scheme. It recently announced for its fixed wireless customers a facility enabling them to make calls to any phone anywhere in India for Rs 1 a minute.

STD calls is expected to be fall by as much as 50 per cent. The current fixed phone STD rates vary from Rs. 1.80 a minute under certain schemes to the more generic Rs 2.40 a minute.

Earlier BSNL had reportedly expressed its opposition to the 'One India' tariff project, which had sought to eliminate call charges based on distance as they feared a revenue backlash. BSNL had fears that a reduction in call charges would result in losses, that some subscribers would switch to mobile services and that 'One India' would effectively result in the death of its legacy network.

(www.centralchronicle.com)

 
Trends | Archives | Current News
© Amity Edumedia. All Rights Reserved.
Powered By AKC Data Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Private Policy | Disclaimer