Can a floor price for mobile tariffs save beleaguered telecom players?

On Tuesday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) commenced a consultation process to inquire if there is any regulatory intervention required for fixing tariffs and the floor price of mobile services. Besides this, the regulator also deferred by one year the scrapping of the charge paid by mobile phone users for calls made to rival networks.

At present, call and data tariffs are under forbearance. This means that the companies have a free hand in fixing rates and have to report tariff plans to Trai, within seven days prior to the launch.

Well, if you are wondering what changes after the introduction of fixed floor price, let me tell you, if that happens, free calls on mobile services may become a thing of the past, as it leads to effectively ending free mobile/phone call and data regime.