TRAI is not Considering any Tariff Floor Pricing Plans: Source

A source said that TRAI is not pondering over any move to fix a floor price for mobile tariff for the time being.

No Floor Pricing for Mobile Tariff for now

A TRAI source told ETTelecom, "we are not considering tariff floor pricing since the move may not be consumer friendly". The regular also has said that it will not do anything else since it has already declined the same demand from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Both these telcos sought a check on freefalling ARPU within the industry by introducing floor pricing. Last year, TRAI had declined a proposal from Vodafone Idea. The telco's proposal came after industry group COAI's letter to the regulator seeking floor price for data services.

COAI has earlier said that the competition within the industry was intense. As such, it was not possible for an individual service provider to correct its tariff voluntarily. It argued that the sector regulator has to intervene and prescribe a minimum tariff.

Industry reiterates that mobile data rates in India are the lowest worldwide which presently stands at around ₹8/GB a month. The regulatory officials believe that the tariffs are under forbearance, and telecom carriers can set up their voice and data prices, but under the current laws, must report their postpaid and prepaid plans to TRAI within the seven days of the launch.

However, Reliance Jio has called the same regressive and anti-competitive, saying that it wasn't necessary. Its telecom foray in 2016 had triggered an intense competition between the sectoral players. Jio's aggressive pricing meant that everyone else had to match the same, or simply fail to compete.

Following the lockdown last year, TRAI had again rejected telcos fresh demand to hold an open house discussions on floor pricing.