Mumbai: Virtually rallying behind telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) in the midst of tariff controversy, Reliance Infocomm on January 28 welcomed the new pricing norms and said it would not pass on the hike to consumers for its different services including limited mobile.

"We welcome TRAI's new tariff regime and now we expect business colleagues (cellular operators) will maintain the environment conducive to growth of telecom services," Manoj Modi, Executive Director of Reliance Infocomm, said.

Reliance is the first major telecom operator to have supported TRAI's tariff package announced last week even as the apex associations of both basic and cellular operators shunned comments on the ground that they were still assessing the impact.

Having grabbed 18 telecom circles for basic services, Reliance is perhaps in the most coveted position after PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in terms of the spread network, although the Rs 65,000 corporate giant was accused of soft bidding for cellular licences that were put on block two years ago.

Reliance has already announced its WLL (Wireless in Local Loop) services averaging a tariff of Rs 0.40 per minute which practically provoked cellular operators to take up cudgels against TRAI, accused of favouritism by the cellular industry.

Modi said, "We had announced at the time of launch of our services in December that any increase in the cost, as TRAI was in the process to announce new tariffs, will not be passed on to the subscribers."

PTI