As stated earlier, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) is holding a meeting on July 21, with the incumbent operators to decide the floor prices of voice and data services. The demand was raised by the Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. They also wanted the upward revision of interconnect usage charges(IUC).
In the meeting which held today, TRAI rejected the proposal from the incumbent operators who were seeking to decide the floor prices for voice and data services.
TRAI Chairman, RS Sharma after attending the meeting with the CEO’s of the telecom operators said,”We had a detailed discussion on this. Fixing a floor price was not a workable idea. Prices, as they are under forbearance, should continue as they are”. He also added that there wouldn’t be any further discussions on this.
The incumbents wanted a floor price to put an end to the free services which were being offered by newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm. The free and low-cost services had triggered an intense price war which had hurt the revenue and profitability of the established carriers.