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Telecos oppose tariff review

Operators argue cellphone charges among lowest in the world
Last Updated 12 March 2012, 18:30 IST

Opposing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)’s proposal to review the existing tariff policy, telecom operators have said that the current regime has appropriate regulatory measures to protect the interests of consumers.

In response to the Trai’s paper on policy of forbearance in telecom tariff, both GSM and CDMA operators' bodies, COAI and AUSPI, on Monday contended that under the current structure, mobile phone tariffs in the country are among the lowest in the world.

Denying any co-ordinated move by the industry to increase the prices, the operators said that hike in tariffs was taken by different operators at different point of time.

Moreover, the price hike was marginal and that to taking into account of other factors like rising rate of interests, higher costs of power and fuel and decline in revenue.

Tariff monitored

The COAI said change in the policy would not serve any additional purpose since “under the present regime of for bearance, the tariffs have been continuously monitored and customer interest has been protected.”

Expressing similar sentiments, the AUSPI said that the present regulatory regime of forbearance was working perfectly well.

In support

Meanwhile, consumer groups like Consumer Voice supported the proposal. “In view of Supreme Court decision cancelling 122 telecom licenses, the number of operators in each circle has reduced thereby providing undue competitive and resultant pricing power advantage to the incumbent operators,” it said.

In this scenario, it is desirable that the Policy of Forbearance in Telecom Tariffs is withdrawn till new licences are issued, it added.

However, companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Uninor have supported the current policy of forbearance of tariffs adopted by Trai, where the operators are free to fix their tariff.

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(Published 12 March 2012, 18:30 IST)

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