Per-second billing sets a new tone

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New Delhi: With all the major mobile operators coming out with a per-second billing plan, sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will now reconsider whether a consultation paper is required to examine that operators mandatorily provide this as an option.

“We will examine whether a consultation paper is now required or not. If at all we go ahead with the consultation process, it would be to ensure that what operators are providing today is not withdrawn tomorrow,” a Trai official said.

Early last month, Trai chairman JS Sarma had said he’s examining the feasibility of coming out with a consultation paper to examine that operators provide per-second billing options as one of their several plans.

The move towards per-second billing by operators got accelerated with the country’s largest operator Bharti Airtel coming out with a plan on Friday. Idea Cellular, the country’s fifth largest player followed suit with a similar plan on Saturday. Vodafone-Essar’s spokesperson confirmed to FE that a per-second billing plan was being offered by the company in 10 circles and would soon be extended to the remaining circles.

Per-second billing was first offered by the country’s sixth largest operator, Tata Teleservices Ltd, in June. Shyam Sistema and Aircel followed suit. The country’s second-largest operator Reliance Communications hasn’t moved to a per-second billing as yet but has slashed tariffs for local as well as STD tariffs to flat 50 paise per minute on calls made to all networks.

Industry experts agree that with Bharti joining the fray, the per-second billing plan has now become an industry standard much ahead of any regulatory guideline.

Speaking exclusively to FE, Anil Sardana, managing director, TTSL, the company which pioneered the concept, said, “”As far as other industry players also embracing similar plans like the pay per second option, we welcome the move as it will benefit the Indian telecom user—especially considering that these same players were critical of the concept when we at Tata DoCoMo pioneered it.

The success of our innovation is evident from the fact that we emerged as the number one operator in the country in terms of new subscriber additions in the last two months”.