The Silicon Review ^Asia

Telecom regulator TRAI has fixed phone call ring time at thirty seconds for mobiles and sixty seconds for landline in the case of a call not being answered or rejected. The rule is expected to come into effect after 15 days from Friday when the announcement was made.

“The time duration of an alert for an incoming call, which is neither answered nor rejected by the called party, shall be thirty seconds for Cellular Mobile Service and sixty seconds for Basic Telephone Service,” TRAI announced with regards to their amendments to quality of service norms for basic telephone and mobile telephone services.

There has never been a set time limit for ring time in India. ITU (International Telecommunication Union), a UN body has specified a prescribed value time for international calls or circuits in the range of 1.5 minutes to three minutes but there was no set time value for domestic calls or service providers. The present call alert duration is between thirty to forty five seconds, depending on the different telecom service providers.

 Jio network has accused operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodaphone Idea of ‘illegally’ cloaking wire line numbers as mobile numbers for enrichment and has asked TRAI to slap the severest penalty on these service providers for violation of regulations and licensing norms. Bharti Airtel retaliated by claiming that Jio has been trying to misguide regulators ahead of the consultation on call charges (interconnect usage charges). Telecom operators were reducing their incoming call time to increase reverse calls from other network service subscribers.