Telecom regulator Trai on Thursday said it will study a suggestion of having a mandated floor price for voice and data services.
The suggestion came from Idea Cellular, Vodafone and BSNL. Idea and Vodafone are suffering heavy losses after the launch of free voice plans by Reliance Jio in September last year. “It is a new concept … we have agreed for more deliberations on this,” Trai chairman R S Sharma said.
The idea was mooted during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting that the regulator held with various telecom companies to understand their financial strain as well as take suggestions on how to improve health of the sector that is reeling under heavy debt and losses, especially after Jio started its service.
Top operator Airtel is understood to have stayed away from the demand of a floor price. Jio did not support the proposal and rather spoke about the need for having open-market competition.”There was an interesting idea of creating a floor price for voice and data.
We will have to deliberate on this issue,” Sharma said.
Telecom tariffs in India are currently under forbearance and companies are free to decide on consumer offerings. Sources said fixation of a floor price, if approved, would mean that companies would need to get tariffs cleared by Trai for various plans, something that most of the players will not be comfortable with in a hyper competitive industry.
Jio had started its services with a bang when it announced lifetime free voice on its network. The company’s decision had disrupted the financial model of the telecom industry as leading players.