After IUC, Another TRAI Consultation Paper Sparks Telecom Debate

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s lower ringer duration sparked a debate if it’s trying to nudge users into making more calls to its network even as TRAI floated a consultation paper on the issue.

Mukesh Ambani’s telecom unit disconnects incoming and outgoing calls in 19 seconds. That’s at least 40 percent quicker than its rivals.

Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Ltd. have yet to officially react and didn’t respond to emailed queries. A Bharti Airtel Ltd. spokesperson said the company has set ringer time at 45 seconds for normal voice calls and at 40 seconds for VoLTE (voice over long-term evolution) calls. But the duration of the ring in case of an outgoing call from Bharti Airtel’s network will depend on the time set by the receiving operator, he said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, in the consultation paper released on Sept. 16, said that a lower ring time when calls are made from one network to other could result into higher missed calls as there might be a good chance that these calls could have been answered if network would have waited. This might result into conversion of outgoing calls to incoming calls which in turn would create revenue and in reduction of asymmetric traffic artificially, it said.

For instance, a Reliance Jio user makes a call to an Airtel subscriber. If the call gets disconnected early due to lower ringer time, resulting in a missed call, that may prompt the receiver to dial back. If the call terminates on Reliance Jio’s network, it will generate IUC revenue for the operator. Operators received an interconnection fee for completing calls originating from rival networks.

This would benefit Reliance Jio as the nation’s newest telecom operator is a net payer of interconnection usage charges to rival networks. That’s because it has fewer active or paying subscribers than peers.

The telecom operators’ lobby, however, said it’s “very speculative” whether the person to whom the call was made will dial back. Also, there are various other means of connecting like messages, WhatsApp messages and calls, among others, which would not result into any income generation, Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India, told BloombergQuint.

Had it been only voice calls, according to Mathews, then there was a possibility that some outgoing calls would be converted into incoming, leading to income generation. The COAI at present is working with its members to determine the proper response to the TRAI consultation paper and it’s too early to make any determination on call patterns, he said.

TRAI in its consultation paper also said a lower ring time might save phone network resources such as spectrum. Currently, there are no specific standards on ringing time. Globally, various operators in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia have varied ringer time ranging between 15 seconds and 30 seconds. The U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc. has set the timer at 15 seconds.