The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued the International Calling Card Services (Access Charges) Regulations, 2014, prescribing access charges payable by international long distance operators (ILDOs) to the access service providers. As per the regulation, ILDO will have to pay access charges to of Re 0.40 per minute for wireless services and Rs 1.20 per minute for wireline services.

In the prevailing regime, consumers can not choose their ILDO and are dependent on access providers for making ISD calls. As per the new regulations, customers can buy calling cards from any ILDO and avail of the advantage of competition in the long distance services segment.

TRAI has also stated that when the Intelligent Network Regulations were amended in 2012 to facilitate interconnection agreement to allow consumers the choose NLDO/ILDO; telecom service providers had shown disagreement. Therefore in November 2013, TRAI started the consultation process on ‘Revenue Sharing Arrangement for Calling Card Services’, as a consequence of which the new regulations have been issued.