STD and ISD rates to fall down even further

India is seeing a telecom boom. Mobile phone charges are some of the lowest in the world. Now, well the STD and ISD charges are bound to become cheaper too. Next year will see tariffs for ISD and STD calls fall down by almost 9%. In some cases, the drop in charges might even be more. This comes after the Indian government decided to slash license fees for these telecom operators.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) announced today a reduction in the annual license fee for ISD and STD licenses to 6%, from 15% of the revenue. They also lowered down the one-time entry license fees for new STD operators to Rs 2.5 crores from the existing 100 crores and for new ISD operators to Rs 2.5 crores from Rs 25 crores.

Another interesting factor is that DoT has now approved the telecom operators to provide internet telephony service on their phones. These new rules are applicable from the January of next year and are going to benefit the end consumer a lot. Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Televentures spoke about these new rules: “This will benefit the customer and it is a step towards driving the growth of telecommunications in the country”.

Drop in entry license fee is now expected to bring newer players in the market, which would help, in increasing competition between the companies bringing in better services and lower prices for the end consumer.