The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said any asymmetry in setting termination charges between fixed and mobile will prompt a “surge in calling applications (VoIP apps) taking advantage of the arbitrage.” It said that VoIP calling apps like Ringo will further benefit from a regime where interconnection charges are nil or zero. This will allow Ringo to offers talk time at much cheaper rates than the rates offered by telecom operators, added COAI. “This activity of such apps is not only depriving the legitimate licensed operators of their origination charges but also causing revenue loss to the exchequer,” COAI said. The lobby body added that fixing a Bill & Keep regime for calls to and from fixed line connections results in “mobile operators cross subsidizing their fixed line competitors and is against principles of fair competition.” The COAI said this in its reply (pdf) to TRAI’s recent consultation paper which looked into revising IUC (Interconnect Usage Charges) charges for VoIP and wireless/wire line calls. Also Read: ‘Airtel, Idea, Vodafone derailing our plans to launch VoIP services in India’: Ringo Telecom operators make money out of calls within in network in two-ways. This is explained below through an example. Through Calling-Party-Pay (CPP) regime: Under the CPP regime, if an Airtel subscriber makes a call to a Vodfaone subscriber, Airtel pays a certain amount of money per minute to Vodafone as a termination charge. This is because an Airtel subscriber starts a call which subsequently terminates on the Vodafone network. Airtel is technically paying…
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