Trai: Cells should ring for 30 seconds, landlines 60

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai on Friday fixed 30 seconds as ring time for mobile phones and 60 seconds for landlines, putting at rest the battle among Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea.
There was no such limit for calls within India till now and telecom operators on their own were reducing incoming call ring time to attract reverse call from subscribers of other networks as shorter rings meant more missed calls.
“The time duration of alert for an incoming voice call, which is neither answered nor rejected by the called party, shall be 30 seconds for cellular mobile telephone service and 60 seconds for basic telephone service,” Trai said in an amendment to quality of service norms for basic telephone and cellular mobile telephone services.
Earlier, both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone had alleged that Jio had slashed ring time of calls from its network to 20 seconds in some circles to elicit call-backs because shorter rings meant more missed calls. Executives from the companies alleged that by doing so, Jio was trying to manipulate the interconnect usage charges (IUC), which is a net revenue generator for the telco receiving more calls.
While Jio reacted to its rivals’ protests by increasing ring time to 25 seconds, industry sources said that as a retort, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea cut their own ring time to 25 seconds. Jio, however, said that 15-20 seconds was a global norm and its network was being inundated by missed calls originating from other telcos as it offered free voice services.