Minimum floor price for telecom services may be fixed

New Delhi: The freebies offered by telecom service providers may be a thing of the past.The telecom regulator, TRAI, has woken to the demand by some of the telecom operators against this practice and called a meeting to discuss and fix a minimum floor price for voice and data services

The fixation of floor price will mean not only an end to this practice but also some others. At present,

operators virtually have a free hand in fixing the rates . This freedom will be denied to them if the minimum rate is decided.

During the meeting, the regulator may ask those demanding withdrawal of freebies to give reasons for the same. They may make detailed presentations.

The meeting may also discuss the upper ceiling issue. Some people in the telecom sector equally justify a higher ceiling.

The demand for a floor price had first come up last month, at a meeting with the regulator . It was also raised at inter-ministerial group meeting.

Some of the service providers have come to the conclusion that in absence of floor prices for voice and other services mobile operators are not able to generate profit to invest in improving quality.

Some countries including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have fixed floor prices and because of it have been able to provide better services. The same thing may be tried in this country.

Most of the operators have a grudge against Mukesh Ambani promoted Reliance Jio which had entered the market last year with free promotional voice and data services. It has some more offers and promised free voice calls on its network for life.

It is being largely blamed for theAverage salary hike in Indian companies this year may be lower debt burden of Rs 4.6 lakh crores faced by the industry.

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