The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stated that it will review the tariff hikes by telecom operators if prices are raised beyond current base rates.

TRAI claims that the mobile tariffs were low due to competition between telecom operators to attract the customers. The operators were offering calls at lower rates than their actual costs. However, telecom operators who are in heavy debt or are making losses have started cutting down on benefits and free minutes in a move to improve revenues.

Base rates are the maximum call or service rates that a telecom operator can charge to its customers.  At present, most of the telecom operators have fixed base rate at Re 0.02 per second. Although the regulator does not expect these tariffs to change, it reserves the right to intervene if the tariffs increase more than the current base rates.