(a) whether the Government has any proposal to reduce the telephone tariff for the
subsceibers of Land Line and Cellular Phones provided by BSNL/MTNL to meet the growing
competition from other telecom operators;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) if not, the reasons therefor; and
(d) the number of cellular phone connections have been added by the BSNL/MTNL during the months starting from April, 2007 to February, 2008, month-wise?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DR. SHAKEEL
AHMAD)
(a) to (c) Government no longer fixes the tariff for telecom services in the country.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been mandated to regulate the tariff for
telecom services vide TRAI Act of 1997 and under the current provisions of TRAI, most of
such rates are under forbearance. Both BSNL & MTNL have been reviewing the tariffs for Land
line and Cellular services from time to time on the basis of needs of customers, prevailing
competition and TRAI guidelines.
(d) The month-wise details of number of cellular phone connections added by the BSNL/MTNL
during the months starting from April, 2007 to February, 2008 are given in the Annexure.