Reliance Infocomm's dream of offering STD at 40 paise could run into rough weather with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India asking all operators to specify the exact amount a customer has to pay for a call.

Trai, which ordered a review of the interconnect charges on Saturday, also said it would bring out guidelines on the manner in which tariffs should be announced by the operators so that consumers were able to evaluate them with ease.

At present, Reliance offers 400 minutes of free calls for a monthly charge of Rs 500, which means the cost per call works out to be Rs 1.25 per minute.

However, the company has been advertising that it is offering STD at 40 paise per minute on grounds that of the monthly charge of Rs 500, only Rs 160 is being charged for making calls, while the remaining Rs 340 is being charged on account of rentals and club membership fees. This may not be permitted once the new guidelines are in place.

"The review will give us an opportunity to present our views on some of the anomalies in the interconnect regime. This is the first time that we have embarked on such a regime, so there are bound to be teething troubles.

"What is important is that the regulator has realised this fast and acted on it," said T V Ramachandran, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India.

S C Khanna, secretary-general, Association of Basic Telecom Operators, said the Trai move reopened the debate on the legitimacy of free incoming calls for cellular users.

Basic operators are against the free incoming regime because it forces fixed-line operators to pay more when calling a cell user.

However, analysts pointed out that Trai would find it difficult to justify any change in the interconnect regime.

"The operators are same, the environment is same, the licence condition is same and the data available to Trai is same.

"So either Trai will have to admit that it had messed up in the first instance, or it will have to review all the decisions taken by former chairman M S Verma," said a telecom analyst.

Trai's tariff order, implemented from May 1, has come under heavy fire not just from the industry, but also politicians across parties, forcing the Prime Minister to intervene.

The interconnect regime had stipulated the formula for sharing revenue between various operators in the sector. While operators had agreed on the basic principles, they were not happy with the way the revenue was divided by Trai.

Regulatory issues

• Trai to review the interconnect regime and address the controversies that have cropped up.
• Service providers to get 3 months to firm up tariffs.
• Interconnect norms to continue during the three-month review.
• Background paper for the consultations will be issued by May 15.
• Trai to examine the number of tariff plans to be allowed for each service provider, as well as the forbearance given to tariffs for cellular and limited mobility services.
• Trai seeks to ensure that there is transparency about the actual call charges paid by the consumer.