Incoming mobile calls have to ring for 30 seconds: Trai
NEWDELHI: Incoming calls must be allowed to ring for at least 30 seconds on a mobile phone and 60 seconds on the landline, the telecom regulator ruled on Friday, settling a dispute between operators.
Operators will have to maintain the time duration for an incoming voice call to 30 seconds on the receiving network for cellular mobile telephone services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said.
For landline networks, the duration was set at 60 seconds because the recipient may take longer to pick up the phone.
“Moreover, force release of incoming voice call (on mobile network) after specified duration of alert shall be initiated by the terminating network. However, in case of abnormal conditions, originating network may force release the call after waiting at least for 90 seconds,” Trai said.
Last month, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio were locked in a war of words over the issue.
While Bharti Airtel wanted a ringing time of 45 seconds, arguing networks receiving the call must be allowed sufficient time, Jio batted for 20-25 seconds in order to save spectrum resources. Vodafone Idea favoured 30 seconds.
Trai had floated a consultation paper on the matter on 16 September after operators failed to reach a consensus.
FOR LANDLINE PHONES, THE DURATION WAS
SET AT 60 SECONDS BECAUSE THE RECIPIENT MAY TAKE LONGER TO PICK UP THE PHONE
While specifications for international calls are set by the International Telecommunication Union, there was no prescribed value for domestic calls in India.
“Every second’s reduction on the ringing time saves spectrum resources for us,” Mahipal Singh, associate vice-president, Jio, said on 16 October, adding that the matter should be outside regulatory intervention.
Rival Airtel, on the other hand, said the timer should be set based on the preference of the network which is receiving the phone call.
It had earlier said that the reduction in call outgoing time by Jio results in a missed call, and forces the person receiving the call on another network to dial back—thus creating incoming call traffic for Jio.
Every call that lands on a mobile network fetches the recipient network money. An interconnect usage charge, or IUC, is levied by mobile networks handling incoming calls from rival networks.
This is a source of revenue for telcos, such as Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which witness more incoming traffic than outgoing. At present, the IUC is at 6 paise a minute. On the other hand, Jio, which had reduced its outgoing call ringer time to 25 seconds in September, has more outgoing traffic than incoming. Jio’s outgoing traffic was 64% of its total voice traffic as of June-end.