India-Nepal call rates increases due to surge in termination charges

The State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has said that the phone calls made from India to Nepal have become expensive as Nepal Telecom increased termination charges.

"Nepal Telecom has increased the termination charges from Rs.3.15/min to Rs.7.80/min w.e.f. 1st December 2017. This increase in termination charges by Nepal Telecom resulted in an increase of the call rate from India to Nepal (from Rs. 6/min - Rs. 10 / min to Rs. 9 / min - Rs. 12/min) w.e.f. from 12th December 2017," BSNL said.

It said because of skewed termination charges i.e. Rs.7.80/min of Nepal Telecom against Rs.0.35/min charged by Indian telecom operators, most of the calls originating from Nepal to India are cheaper.

BSNL said that during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal, an announcement was made that call rates to Nepal would be reduced in near future.

If Nepal also brings down the termination charges in line then it would benefit consumers calling from India to Nepal, BSNL added.

Meanwhile, company's CMD Anupam Shrivastava pointed out that even in this turbulent times BSNL could not only face the competition head-on by matching tariff by tariff and even at times proactively coming up with bold, innovative, unlimited data and voice plans.

"This has helped BSNL to increase its market share as well as remain MNP positive," he said further at the recently organized Heads of Circles Conference (HOCC) conference.

The conference was attended by the Board of Directors and Heads of BSNL telecom circles.

"Market share of BSNL has been improved from 7.6 percent to 9.43 percent which is commendable. BSNL can play the significant role in Smart City projects, NFS and FTTH. Works worth Rs 150 Crore has been allotted to BSNL under smart city projects, which can be taken as an advantage," Manoj Sinha, Telecom Minister said.

While addressing the meeting Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Telecom underlined that BSNL is a key partner in BharatNet implementation and has increased market share as well.

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"The objective is that every citizen of India must have broadband of 10mbps speed by 2022. We are also organizing workshops with States to aggressively drive that and make sure that by 2022, broadband becomes available to all," Sundararajan said.