India's telecom regulator TRAI on Monday issued the Telecommunication Interconnection (Port Charges) (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026, bringing IP-based interconnection ports under a charge framework for the first time and fixing annual ceilings that will apply from January 1, 2027.

Source: TRAI

Under the new provisions, the annual maximum charge for a 1 Gbps IP port has been fixed at Rs 5.6 lakh, while a 10 Gbps IP port will carry a ceiling of Rs 42.3 lakh a year. Interconnection providers and seekers may mutually agree to charges below those ceilings.

Source: Hindustan Samachar

The amendment expands the definition of a port so it covers not only legacy E1 ports, with a capacity of 2.048 Mbps, but also IP ports whose capacities are expressed in Mbps and Gbps. The charges prescribed under the existing framework will continue to apply exclusively to E1 ports.

Source: Nation Press

TRAI said the IP port charges will apply uniformly to fixed-line, mobile, national long-distance and international long-distance services, modernising an interconnection regime that was built for older TDM-based networks.

To enforce the new framework, the regulations provide for a graded financial disincentive, with a penalty of up to Rs 15 lakh per service area for each instance of non-compliance with specified provisions.

The regulator's power to prescribe interconnection terms comes from Section 11(1)(b) of the TRAI Act, 1997. The review that led to the amendment began with a pre-consultation paper on April 3, 2025, followed by a consultation paper on November 10, 2025 and an open house discussion on January 28, 2026.

Interconnection is the arrangement that lets users of one telecom network call and connect to users of another. By putting a ceiling on what networks can charge each other for IP ports, TRAI is setting the wholesale terms on which India's increasingly IP-based networks will connect from 2027.