However, the Telecommunication Tariff Order 1999 for other services such as radio paging, leased circuits, internet, value-added services, telex and telegraph services and global mobile personal communication services (GMPCS) would come into effect from April 1, as originally ordered by Trai in its March 15 notification.

A Trai press release stated that the regulatory authority had received a letter from department of telecom secretary Anil Kumar on March 27 requesting the date of implementation for the tariffs for basic services to be not earlier than April 15, 1999 in order to avoid any confusion or disruption in effecting necessary changes in all computerised exchanges in the country.

Trai alsoreceived requests from cellular and other basic service providers including BPL Mobile, Birla AT&T, SkyCell, Hughes Ispat, Essar, Modi-Telstra, Maxtouch and Escotel seeking a two to four week postponement of the implementation of the tariff order.

The regulatory authority held an open house meeting with associations of service providers including department of telecom on March 29. At this meeting, DoT officials sought an overall five-week extension of time for implementation of the tariff order in basic service and ISDN while private basic and cellular service providers requested for a two to three weeks time for implementation after the DoT had made available its charging plans.

Trai has stated that two weeks time was enough for DoT to finalise its tariff and passing it on to the field units for conversion into charging plans and related software. TRAI believes that after the charging tables are made available to cellular and other basic service providers, another two weeks would be required by theprivate operators to make the necessary changes in the software of their exchanges. Thus, a total of four weeks time is justified for necessary preparatory work for the introduction of new tariffs.

The Trai has clarified that in respect of services for which the new tariff structure will come into effect from April 1, it has been decided to grant a one-time waiver from the prior reporting and publication requirements subject to service providers meeting these requirements no later than April 15.