TRAI sets Rs1.50 tariff per mobile banking transaction; relaxes norms

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set a Rs1.50 tariff ceiling on an outgoing session for USSD-based mobile banking service and increased the maximum number of stages for completion of a mobile banking transaction from two to five.

TRAI said it supported use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) as appropriate for mobile banking service and financial inclusion as it was a ubiquitous, inexpensive, secure and convenient channel.

The service providers should collect charges from their subscribers for providing the USSD channel to deliver mobile banking services.

However, the ceiling tariff for an outgoing USSD session for USSD-based mobile banking service should not exceed Rs1.50 per USSD session, TRAI said.

It is mandatory for every telecom service provider, acting as bearer, to facilitate not only the banks but also the authorised agents of the banks to use SMS, USSD and IVR to provide banking services to the banks' customers.

TRAI also raised the maximum number of stages for completion of a mobile banking transaction from two to five.

The Mobile Banking (Quality of Service) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013 has come into force with immediate effect and the Telecommunication Tariff (Fifty Sixth Amendment) Order, 2013 will come into force on 1 January 2014, TRAI said.

Together, these will offer a framework to facilitate the agents of the banks to interface with the access service providers for use of SMS, USSD and IVR channels to provide mobile banking services, TRAI said.

While the easy access to banking services for all our citizens is a major objective of public policy, a large section of the population is still unbanked/ under-banked. With a significant penetration of mobile telephony in rural India, the mobile phone can be leveraged to achieve the goal of financial inclusion.

An inter-ministerial group has suggested the opening of mobile linked 'no-frills' accounts, which would be operated using mobile phones.

Under this, customers would be able to perform five basic transactions - cash deposit, cash withdrawal, balance enquiry, transfer of money from one mobile-linked account to another, and transfer of money to a mobile-linked account from a regular bank account.

TRAI has been asked to ensure that telecom services of adequate quality are provided for mobile banking at reasonable charges.

TRAI, on its part, had initiated a comprehensive consultation process in July 2012 with all stakeholders and the public.

New norms and tariff rates are based on the comments of the stakeholders and further analysis, TRAI said.

TRAI also released its recommendations on 'Monopoly/ Market dominance in Cable TV services', which include:

• Each state to be the relevant market for assessing monopoly/market dominance of multi system operators (MSOs) in the TV channel distribution market;
• Market dominance to be determined on the basis of market share in terms of the number of active subscribers of MSOs in the relevant market;
• The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) will be used for measuring the level of competition or market concentration in a relevant market;
• A new definition of control is prescribed covering both de jure and de facto control;
• Prior approval of the regulator should be taken for any merger and acquisition (M&A) among MSO(s) or between an MSO and a local cable operator (LCO) in a relevant market and for any arrangement that results in 'control' of MSO(s)/ LCO(s) in a relevant market by an entity.

The decision on the proposals to be conveyed by the regulator within 90 working days;

• Rules for M&A and acquisition of control among MSO(s) or between an MSO and LCO in the relevant market have also

TRAI also issued its recommendations on priority routing on telecom network in order to avoid failures during emergencies/disasters in the light of a significant rise in telecom traffic.

TRAI has proposed the setting up of a `Priority Call Routing (PCR)' scheme to ensure that calls of personnel responsible for 'response and recovery' during disasters are routed on priority.

To be called Enhanced Multi-Level Precedence & Pre-emption (eMLPP), priority call routing (PCR) will have the right to pre-empt ongoing calls, if needed.

TRAI said it would review the use of call pre-emption feature of eMLPP subsequently, based on the performance of the PCR scheme during emergencies.

The PCR scheme should be funded through budgetary allocation for the National Disaster Relief Funds (NDRF)/SDRF and monitored by the government, TRAI said.