Trai Reduces Ceiling Tariff for Dedicated Broadband Lines

Telecom regulator Trai has reduced ceiling tariffs of dedicated broadband lines, called domestic leased circuits (DLCs), mainly used by business houses and telecom operators, by up to 60 percent.

The revised tariff regime for DLCs will come in to effect from August 1, 2014, Trai said in a statement.

(Also see: Trai Raises Minimum Broadband Speed to 512Kbps)

Domestic leased circuits are dedicated connections between service providers facility to customers premise and are separate from general public networks.

DLCs form a crucial building block for the delivery of various services like e-commerce, e-governance, Internet access for the masses and knowledge based industries like BPO, IT and ITes, the regulator said.

Besides, telecom service providers who do not have sufficient transmission infrastructure in any area also lease DLCs to provide various telecom services.

"Trai has reduced ceiling tariffs for Point-to-Point Domestic Leased Circuits (P2P-DLCs) of E1 (2Mbps), DS3 (45Mbps) and STM-1 (155Mbps) capacities and has brought DLCs of STM-4 (622Mbps) capacity under tariff regulation," the statement said.

The regulator said that it has left tariffs for DLCs of less than 2 megabit per second capacity under forbearance.

Trai has reduced ceiling tariff, or the maximum rate, on 2Mbps leased line having length between 5 kilometres to 500 km, called long distance band, from Rs. 8.5 lakh per annum to Rs. 3.41 lakh per annum.

Similarly for leased connection on long distance band having capacity of 45Mbps the new ceiling tariff has come down by 57 percent to Rs. 26.54 lakh from Rs. 61.59 lakh per annum. For 155Mbps new rate has come down by 58 percent. Trai has not made any change in annual rentals of leased circuit lines having capacity of 622Mbps.

For low distance band which is less than 5km for 2Mbps line, Trai has reduced ceiling tariff by 29 per cent to Rs. 12,086 per annum. In same band, which is less than 50km for others, Trai has reduced ceiling on 45Mbps line by 12 percent to Rs. 5.84 lakh and 10 percent on 155Mbps to Rs. 16.1 lakh per annum.