NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday settled one aspect of the multi-faceted dispute on Interconnect Usage Charges among Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and new entrant Reliance Jio.
The telecom regulator directed that an incoming voice call made to a mobile phone must ring for at least 30 seconds, and to a landline for 60 seconds. The decision comes after RJio and Airtel had locked horns over the issue, with the former arguing for 20-25 seconds, and Airtel and Vodafone Idea seeking 45 and 30 seconds, respectively.
According to experts, the issue has significant financial implications. Under the current IUC regime, telecom operators can charge rivals 6 paise per minute for handling incoming calls. "Airtel and Vodafone Idea are net receivers of this fee. However, RJio is a net payer as it accounts for two-thirds of all outgoing calls. It has to shell out Rs 800 crore every quarter to its rivals," said an industry executive.
RJio, a firm opponent of the IUC regime, had this year fired the first shot accusing rivals of masquerading landline numbers as mobile connections to get a bigger payout. It, then, followed it up by cutting the ring time for outgoing calls to rival networks to 25 seconds.
Airtel immediately followed suit for calls made to RJio, alleging in September that the rival's move was designed to lead to more missed calls, forcing Airtel customers to call back, increasing incoming calls and consequently IUC income for Jio.
The spat had forced Trai to float a consultation paper on the matter on September 16, with officials noting that different ring duration on different networks would certainly skew the chances of an incoming call being answered.
To press its case, Reliance Jio had argued that 20-25 seconds were the global standard and would save spectrum resources. Airtel, on the other hand, batted for a longer duration ringing to give users more time to answer a call.
Why operators are squabbling over ring time
The longer a call rings, the higher the chances of it being answered. Every call that lands on a mobile network from another brings money in the form of interconnect usage charge. This is a major source of revenue for telcos like Airtel that have more incoming traffic than outgoing