The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is considering issuing show-cause notices to Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for not signing agreements with the companies interested in providing international calling card services directly to the consumers. Earlier, TRAI had received complaints from various international long distance (ILD) service providers against the non-signing of agreements by the telecom operators.

According to a regulation issued in August 2014, the ILD operators are allowed to directly offer their service to consumers. The regulation was aimed at lowering international calling rates. Further, it bars the service providers from denying their consumers the ILD voice services offered through calling card either directly or indirectly.

Therefore, as per TRAI, these telecom service providers have violated the International Calling Card Services Regulations. Once the notices are issued, the operators will be given a seven-day time period to reply to the notice.