I had really thought that Indian Telecom companies are digging their grave by slashing their rates to bare minimum and offering schemes like one second billing to keep their share in Indian Telecom pie
But here is something that has surprised me no end – According to Indian Telecom Minister A. Raja, the rates of telephony need to come down further – Infact so low that local calls should be charged at 10 paise per minute and STD calls at 25 paise per minute. He thinks its very much possible.
And if he says it, it must surely be possible !
Here is what Mr. A. Raja had to say (source)
“I have requested all operators to reduce the termination charge by 2010, and this will help to lower the tariffs further. Local call charges can come down to as low as 10 paise a minute and STD charges to just 25 paise, if this happens.” The termination charge is the levy paid by one operator to another on whose network the call ends.
Mr. Raja said operators were also asked to make optimum use of the Universal Service Obligation Fund to build telecom infrastructure in rural areas. The Centre was further simplifying the rules for the operators to get money from the Fund to boost rural telephony. The Fund has more than Rs.16,000 crore collected from all operators.
India already has lowest mobile call rates in the world and cutting them further nearly 5 times – Local calls at 10 paise per minute !!!! beats me ! speak on your mobile for half hour and you end up paying 3 rupees…
Do you think we can see that sort of rates?