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MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today issued
a Regulation on Interconnection amongst all telecom service providers
for Intelligent Network (IN) Services. This Regulation would ensure
that specified innovative services made available through IN will
not be restricted to the telecom service providers who have deployed
the Intelligent Network platform but now also be available to subscribers
of other operators.
Consumers are today offered a number of innovative services made
available through Intelligent Network (IN) deployed by telecom service
providers in their network. Free phone or Toll Free Number, Virtual
Calling Card (VCC) for long distance calls, are some of the popular
examples of services offered through IN platforms. Some of the telecom
service providers in the country have already started offering IN
services for their subscribers. In the existing multi-service multi
operator environment these services can only be accessed by subscribers
of a specific service provider and are not available to the subscribers
of other service providers.
To enable the subscribers of different service providers to access
the IN services of other service providers, TRAI had set up an Expert
Group to handle the technical and regulatory issues pertaining to
this. Based on the recommendations of the Group, a Draft Regulation
was launched on website on 30.10.2005 for comments of stakeholders.
The IN Regulation taking into consideration various comments/ suggestions
received from the various stakeholders has now been finalised and
issued.
The regulation mandates all service providers to provide interconnection
to all eligible service providers so that subscribers of all Access
Providers will have a choice of using the IN services of other service
providers. This regulation will enable all telecom consumers in
the country to have access to Multi-operator Multi-service IN platforms
and no operator will be permitted to block his consumers from accessing
IN platform belonging to other service providers. Service providers
are required to enter into the necessary commercial and technical
agreements for the same within three months. The technical architecture
and mutual revenue share among service providers has to be mutually
decided upon based on the principles of Reciprocity and Non-discrimination.
Also the various service providers have to comply with the various
provisions and Access Code allocated as per the National Numbering
Plan.
The Regulation has been finalised after extensive consultation
with all telecom service providers and, therefore, it should have
smooth implementation.
The Regulation is available on TRAI’s Website (www.trai.gov.in)
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