TRAI against entry fee for voice mail services

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 29. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended that there should be no entry fee for voice mail and audiotex service providers and also that there be no limit on the number of service providers. It said there would be no need for revenue sharing for these services as the revenue share would be charged from the telecom carriage service provider.

In its recommendations to the Government, TRAI, however, suggested that a performance guarantee of Rs. 3 lakhs, on the lines of the category `C' internet service providers (ISP), be obtained from those interested in offering voice mail and audiotex services. The licences granted to service providers should be for a period of 15 years with a provision for extending it by another five years.

The existing providers, who are few in number, should also be allowed the same licencing facilities; TRAI recommended that they be allowed to migrate to the new licencing regime with effect from April 1, 2001.

According to TRAI, voice mail and audiotex services could prove to be very popular, particularly among those who were constantly on the move or did not have a telephone. Any person could leave a message on the mail box of the voice mail subscriber, who could use retrieve the message at his convenience from any telephone connection.

The subscriber could also use other facilities such as stop recording, continue recording, redirect and group messaging from a telephone instrument.

Listing its reasons for not limiting the number of service providers, TRAI said in the case of telecom carriage services, huge investments were needed for putting in place infrastructure over a geographical area and that justified a natural monopoly- like situation. However, no such constraints were applicable to voice mail or audiotex services, which are content services provided through specially-programmed computers placed at the edge of a public network such as PSTN, PLMN or the Internet.

The regulatory body suggested that with the scope of the local area telephone enlarged to cover short distance charging area (SDCA), voice mail service providers should also be given licences to cover the SDCA on the basis of local dialing, that is, local call rates as far as charges for accessing the mail box were concerned. However, there should be no bar on accessing these services on STD call basis.

TRAI also said it would not like to regulate other charges such as activation charge, monthly subscription, choice of mail box number and reconnection.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Recognition for Manipur party
Next     : Statute panel to release papers for debate