India’s telecom regulator TRAI will study the establishment of a floor price for voice and data services, following a request submitted by incumbent operators during a recent meeting between the government and telecom operators. Mobile operators claim no one should offer a tariff that is lower than the cost of services, The Economic Times reports, citing Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma. New market entrant Reliance Jio opposes this floor price initiative.
“There was an interesting idea mooted by some of the operators for creating a floor or minimum price for voice and data. Some examples of fixed floor pricing by some countries were given, and of course there were contrarian views also”, Sharma said. “This is a new idea, we will have to deliberate on it”, he added.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have previously urged Trai to consider the current interconnect usage charge (IUC) of 14 paise per minute as the retail floor price for voice. According to these three operators, any service price below should be considered as predatory pricing.
