Mobile phone users will be paying less for their calls from Friday as the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has ordered phone companies to halve the pulse duration from 20 to 10 seconds.
Pulse duration is a measure of time based on which the tariff is determined in telecommunications services. For instance, if one pulse is 20 seconds and the cost of one pulse is fixed at, say, Rs1, consumers will have to pay Rs1 even if they talk on the phone for less than 20 seconds. In other words, callers will have to pay Rs1 even they have talked on the phone for 10 seconds. The new tariff regime has made it mandatory for telecom service providers to consider 10 seconds as one pulse. This means telephone companies will have to charge customers based on the new pulse rate of 10 seconds. And the tariff for the 10-second pulse rate will be lower than before, say, 50 paisa.
Considering this example, it can be said that customers are being compelled to pay Rs1 for making a 5-second call under the existing tariff regime, while the new tariff structure will bring down that cost to 50 paisa. Pulse rates differ from company to company and service to service. Likewise, the type of package that a consumer has subscribed to also impacts the pulse rate. Telecom service providers are required to get their tariff approved by the NTA. While the pulse duration for domestic mobile phone service has dropped to 10 seconds from 20, the pulse duration for international calls has been slashed to 30 seconds. The pulse duration for landline (PSTN) service remains unchanged at 60 second. “The move will greatly benefit consumers,” said Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson for the NTA. “We will implement the change in pulse duration in two phases. In the first phase, the pulse duration for mobile phones will drop from 20 seconds to 10 from Friday.” As per the plan, the NTA aims to fix the pulse rate at 1 second from October 18, 2017.
For telecom service providers, changing the pulse duration isn’t a big task, said Aryal. “It’s a matter of making changes in the billing software of telecom companies. Hence, there won’t be a problem for telecom companies to comply with the new adjustment from Friday,” he added.
Once the pulse duration is fixed at 1 second from October 18, consumers will pay for the exact duration of their call made through cell phones in the domestic market. The pulse duration for international calls will drop to 10 seconds.
Source: http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-04-13/pulse-rate-for-mobile-calls-to-be-halved.html