'Fix revenue-share amount for terminating opr'

NEW DELHI: Public sector telecom firm BSNL has favoured regulator TRAI's proposal to ring in revenue sharing between visiting and terminating operators vis-a-vis global roaming calls and felt that giving 50 per cent share of roaming charges to terminating network would be a fair deal.

Responding to TRAI's consultation paper on revenue sharing, BSNL said the regulator should prescribe the amount to be shared between the operators instead of letting them decide on their own.

In its view, BSNL said Rs 50 per call should be prescribed as the terminating operator's share in roaming calls, as visiting networks currently charge as high as Rs 100 per call.

"Since visiting Network Service Provider is treating the roaming subscriber differently from its own subscribers and charging much higher and it is not cost based, there should be revenue share between the visiting and terminating network service provider," the PSU said.

Currently, the mobile termination charges are 30 paise and TRAI was of the view that since the terminating operator does not have to incur any extra cost, there was no need to part with a higher share.

While in national roaming, the regulator has prescribed a ceiling of Rs 3 a minute, in international roaming there is no regulation, which has led to charges as high as Rs 100 a minute.

BSNL is of the view that the share of revenue from roaming calls is based on the premium rate charge on such calls by the visiting network operator and the terminating operator which ends the calls. Since the call cannot be completed without a terminating operator, hence the need for share of share from premium.