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The New Year is set to bring cheer to 225 million cellular users as the mobile tariffs for STD calls may further drop by 5-10 percent.Because, by April 1,2008, telcos will no longer have to pay a part of their total revenues towards Access Depicit Charge(ADC) which means the charge that is used to fund state -owned BSNL’s operations in rural India.Currently, STD rates in the country are between Rs 0.60 - Rs 2.40 per minute, depending on the tariff that the subscriber has been chosen.International users calling into India will also get the benefit significantly (ie Rs 0.80 per minute).Access Depicit Charge(ADC) levy on all incoming international calls will be charged till the end of March,2008.So those dialling from abroad can except upto 30% fall in tariffs depending on the country from where the calls originates.

Telecom regulator TRAI has already decided that Access Depicit Charge(ADC) can’t be continued in perpetuity as the idea behind the levy was to have it only for a limited period, mainly to give time to incumbent operators to rebalance their tariff during the transition.

TRAI, the regulator also decided that when DOT feels that BSNL requires further financial support for its unviable rural landline services after March 2008, the PSU can be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund(USOF). All telcos in the country pay 5 % of their total revenues towards the USOF.

Association of United Service Providers of India (AUSPI), Secretary General, SC Khanna said that whenever Access Depicit Charge(ADC) reduction has taken place, the service providers have been passing on most of the benefits to the customers, so customers can expect some reductions.

Bharti Airtel Limited is expected to retain its position as the No.1 telecom company in the country atleast till March 2008. According to Ms Deepti Chauhan of Asit C. Mehta, with the increasing competition Bharti Airtel Limited may have a decline in the market share but Bharti Airtel Limited is likely to be the leader in the wireless industry.And our estimation towards the total wireless subscriber base for Bharti Airtel Limited will be 66.2 million by March 2010 implying a market share of 21.7 % of the wireless industry.

Bharti Airtel Limited is the No.1 private sector provider of telecommunications services based on an aggregate of 53.02 million customers as on October 30,2007.Bharti Airtel Limited has 50.91 million GSM mobile customers and 2.11 million Broadband and telephone customers.The businesses of Bharti Airtel Limited is structured into three strategic business units - Mobile Services, Broadband and Telephone Services.And Ms Chauhan believes that Bharti Airtel Limited will continue maintaining revenue leadership based on its PanIndia presence and improving penetration and coverage.

Reliance Communications is the second largest telecom, eventhough with its GSM licence and spectrum by January 2008, it is unlikely to be ready to come near Bharati Airtel Limited by March,2008.Industry sources says that it will have to construct thousands of towers, get its subscriber schemes ready and make arrangement of systems but all this will take time.However Bharti Airtel Limited to remain industry leader in telecommunication sector upto date.

Hindustan Motors(HM) has launched air-conditioned metered taxis in the city for the first time which would be available in all corners of the city. HM Uttarpara plant executive vice-president Moloy Chowdhury told that the State Transport Department had sanctioned 300 permits for AC metered taxis in the city.

He also added that the tariff for the AC taxis would be 25 per cent more than the non-AC ones. At present there are more than 20,000 non-AC taxis plying in the city.He said that seperate counters would be introduced at the airports and major railway stations for AC taxis.