Telecom stocks tumble up to 7.4% on Trai move

Shares of telecom companies such

as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular plunged up to 7.4 per cent

today after Trai reduced mobile interconnection charges by

more than half to 6 paise a minute.

The scrip of Idea Cellular tumbled 7.4 per cent to Rs

76.85, Bharti Airtel tanked 6.25 per cent to Rs 370, Reliance

Communications dipped 4.21 per cent to Rs 19.30 and Tata Tele

lost 2.53 per cent to Rs 6.15 on BSE.

Shares of RIL, however, gained 3.82 per cent to Rs 872.10

-- its 52-week high.

Telecom regulator Trai yesterday announced slashing of

mobile call connection charge by more than half to 6 paise a

minute and said no rate will apply from January 1, 2020, a

move that may benefit newcomer Reliance Jio.

Mobile companies currently charge 14 paise a minute for

allowing a domestic call from a rival operator to terminate on

their network. This charge, called Interconnection Usage

Charge or IUC, will be 6 paise per minute from October 1,

2017, Trai said in a statement.

Established telecom operators have argued that every

call on the network has a cost, and expenses of an incoming

call on their network should be borne by the operator from

whose network the call has originated.

 

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)