TRAI Fixes Ring Time For Mobiles & Landline

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has fixed phone call ring time at 30 seconds for mobiles and 60 seconds for landline phones. This is the ring time if a call goes unanswered.

Until now, there were no such limits for calls in India. The need for this rose after Reliance owned Jio started adding interconnect usage charges (IUC) for calls to other networks. Jio accused other operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea of “illegally” masking landline numbers as mobile numbers for “undue enrichment”. Airtel countered that Jio was trying to misguide the regulator.

Operators have reportedly reduced incoming call ring times to attract call-backs from other networks. A shorter ring time would result in more missed calls and subsequent call-backs to the other networks, which will have to bear the IUC charges.