New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will not regulate the tariff air passengers pay for making calls and browsing the Internet while flying in Indian airspace, a top official said.
However, mobile phone operators, sector watchers and aviation experts said there was little business case for local carriers as it required dependence on intermediaries and the revenue would not be enough compared with the investments required as the travel time on domestic routes are usually short.
Multinational telcos are supposed to act as intermediaries between airlines and Indian telcos while offering inflight connectivity (IFC) services, as per rules.
“Tariffs are under forbearance in entire telecom sector and it (in-flight connectivity) will not be an exception. We will not govern it, but will keep it under forbearance,” Trai Chairman RS Sharma told ET. He didn’t elaborate on what the pricing levels could be.
He added that the architecture for offering in-flight connectivity (IFC) services would be a business decision between Indian telcos and international telecom carriers with the latter acting as “intermediaries” between the aircraft company and a local telco.
28/05/18 Muntazir Abbas/Gulveen Aulakh/Economic Times
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However, mobile phone operators, sector watchers and aviation experts said there was little business case for local carriers as it required dependence on intermediaries and the revenue would not be enough compared with the investments required as the travel time on domestic routes are usually short.
Multinational telcos are supposed to act as intermediaries between airlines and Indian telcos while offering inflight connectivity (IFC) services, as per rules.
“Tariffs are under forbearance in entire telecom sector and it (in-flight connectivity) will not be an exception. We will not govern it, but will keep it under forbearance,” Trai Chairman RS Sharma told ET. He didn’t elaborate on what the pricing levels could be.
He added that the architecture for offering in-flight connectivity (IFC) services would be a business decision between Indian telcos and international telecom carriers with the latter acting as “intermediaries” between the aircraft company and a local telco.
28/05/18 Muntazir Abbas/Gulveen Aulakh/Economic Times
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