Reduction-Calls Drastic reduction in Int'l rates proposed to curb illegal traffic termination business

KARACHI, Nov 19 (APP) All operators of Long Distance and International (LDI) telephony unanimously expressed their concern about the illegal termination activity and its adverse impact on LDI business.
They were speaking at a meeting of LDI telephony operating companies consortium under the lead of PTCL convened on the direction of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to prepare recommendation for international termination rate and the proportion of Access Promotion Contribution for the half year beginning January, 2006.
The meeting was participated by all leading LDI operators including Callmate, WorldCall, Link Direct, Telecard, Dvcom, BurraqTel, Redtone, Warid, Wisecom, Dancom and NTC.
They stated that measures being taken by various agencies have not been able to effectively curb the illegal termination business. Grey operators, which were operating out of the regulated regime, were still making huge margins and the country was not benefiting, they argued.
According to business sources, majority of operators agreed that the only strategy to effectively curb illegal termination activity was reduction in international termination rate which would cut the arbitrage between legal and illegal operations to a level where illegal business becomes un-attractive.
The operators agreed to reduction of termination rate to 8 cents per minute from the current inflated level of 13.5 cents and reduction in Access Promotion Contribution from the current high of 7.5 cents to 2 cents / minute to bring the international termination rates in line with current market benchmarks.
LDI operators were of the view that reduction in international termination rates to a realistic and market oriented level would help bring all international telephony business under the legal regime and effectively eliminate the illegal operators from the market place.
Submitting their recommendation to PTA, the LDI operators lauded the positive role played by PTA in regulating the international telephony business and creation of a level playing field where all stakeholders could benefit from the opportunities resulting from de-regulation of the telecommunication sector. They added that the de-regulation has already seen four fold increase in tele-density over a span of less than two years since the de-regulation.