Exploring the possibilities of reducing mobile roaming charges, mainly on international calls, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India asked stakeholders on Friday what they think about a revenue-share arrangement between visiting and terminating networks.
The regulator mooted the idea in a consultation paper on Admissibility of Revenue Share between Visiting Network and Terminating Network for Roaming Calls.
Such a formal arrangement could throw open the possibility of reducing roaming rates, especially for international calls as operators at present are free to fix whatever charges they deem fit.
The key issue in this paper is that in case of roaming, whether the terminating network service provider should get only the prescribed termination charges or in view of higher roaming charges, should there be any revenue-share arrangement between the visiting network service provider and the terminating network service provider, Trai said.
Recently, Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran asked the operators to bring down roaming rates.
Trai had mooted the idea of revenue-share first in March last year in its InterConnect Usage Charges Review, but released a stand-alone consultation paper on it on Friday.
International roaming tariffs are under forbearance and there is a ceiling of 30 paise on National Roaming tariff. Revenue-sharing between home network and visiting network is normally decided by mutual agreement between service providers.
In the same paper, the regulator has given arguments for and against the arrangement of revenue-share between visiting and terminating networks.
In the arguments for the revenue-share, it has been pointed out that since roaming is a value-added premium service, revenue generated from it should be shared between home network, visiting network and terminating network on the basis of mutual agreements.
It further says mobile operators (visiting network service providers) themselves treat roaming calls differently from local calls in terms of charges.
While a premium is charged from national roaming customers, international roaming customers are charged Rs 100 per minute. While this is so, the terminating operator gets paid at the Trai prescribed rate of 30 paise a minute for national roaming and as mutually agreed for international calls.
In the views against revenue-share, the regulator points out that the termination network incurs no additional cost for facilitating termination of calls, so any case for an additonal IUC above the preset cost-based termination charge of 30 paise is not required.
The major view against this mutual negotiations for revenue-share between visiting and terminating network service provider in case of roaming calls is similar to permitting scope for fixing higher termination charges for international roaming calls (which was earlier rejected by Trai).
Allowing revenue-share between visiting and terminating network, operators could distort the market and even lead to a hike in roaming tariffs to the customers.
Trai has invited written responses from all stakeholders by June 30.
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