TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART III, SECTION 4
TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, 2nd November, 2026
No. RG-1/(1)/2025-NSL-I.--- In exercise of the powers conferred upon it under section 36, read with sub-clauses (ii), (iii) and (iv) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Telecommunication Interconnection Regulations, 2018 (1 of 2018), namely:-
THE TELECOMMUNICATION INTERCONNECTION (THIRD AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 2026
(8 of 2026)
- (1) These regulations may be called the Telecommunication Interconnection (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026.
- (2) They shall come into force from 1st January, 2027.
- In regulation 2 of the Telecommunication Interconnection Regulations, 2018 (hereinafter referred to as the principal regulations),--
- (a) after clause (1), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(1A) "authorisation" means authorisation as defined under the Telecommunications Act, 2023;";
- (b) in clause (6), after the words "termination of the calls", the words "and short message service" shall be inserted;
- (c) after clause (7), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(7A) "minutes of usage" or "MoUs" means the aggregate duration, expressed in minutes, of voice calls handed over and taken over at a point of interconnection;";
- (d) in clause (8), in the bracket, after the words "License Agreement", the word and symbol "/Authorisation" shall be inserted;
- (e) for clause (9), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:-
"(9) "port" means a termination point on an equipment or a distribution frame that provides a point of access or interconnection for the exchange of traffic between two interconnecting telecommunication networks, enabling ingress and egress of such traffic and shall be -
(i) an E1 port, with a bandwidth of 2.048 Mbps; or
(ii) an IP port, with bandwidth expressed in Mbps or Gbps;";
- In regulation 4 of the principal regulations, --
- (a) in sub-regulation (1), in clause (a), after the word "agreement", the words "or authorisation, as applicable" shall be inserted;
- (b) in sub-regulation (3), after the words "the other service provider", the words "and the two service providers shall, through mutual agreement, enter into the interconnection agreement within the period specified in regulation 3" shall be inserted.
- In regulation 5 of the principal regulations, --
- (a) in sub-regulation (2), in clause (a), for the words "for a period of six months", the words "for a period of twelve months" shall be substituted;
- (b) in sub-regulation (2), in clause (c), for the words "six month.", the words "twelve months:" shall be substituted;
- (c) in sub-regulation (2), after clause (c), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided that, in respect of a bank guarantee furnished under clause (a) before the 1st January, 2027, the next determination under this sub-regulation shall be made on the expiry of such bank guarantee."
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In regulation 6 of the principal regulations, in sub-regulation (3), in the proviso, after the words "which were applicable to them before the 1st February, 2018", the words ", subject to migration or closure of such ports in accordance with regulation 9A and regulation 9B, as applicable" shall be inserted.
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In regulation 7 of the principal regulations, for the words "number of ports", the words "capacity of IP ports" shall be substituted.
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In regulation 8 of the principal regulations, in sub-regulation (2), --
- (a) for the words "additional ports", the words "additional ports or additional capacity of ports" shall be substituted;
- (b) after the words "schedule II to these regulations", the words "for E1/TDM-based interconnection and schedule-III to these regulations for IP-based interconnection" shall be inserted;
- (c) in the proviso to sub-regulation (2), for the words "additional ports", the words "additional ports or additional capacity of ports," shall be substituted.
- In regulation 9 of the principal regulations, --
- (a) for the existing heading, the following heading shall be substituted, namely:-
"Framework for interconnection";
- (b) in sub-regulation (6), after the existing proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided further that the ports provisioned under this sub-regulation shall be subject to the closure and migration requirements specified in regulation 9A and regulation 9B, as applicable."
- For regulation 9A of the principal regulations, the following regulation shall be substituted, namely:-
"9A. Level of interconnection for calls between PSTN and PSTN or between PLMN and PSTN or between PLMN and PLMN or between PSTN and NLD network or between PLMN and NLD network.---(1) The interconnection provider and the interconnection seeker may interconnect for handing over or taking over the telecommunication traffic at any mutually agreed location.
(2) In case the interconnection provider and the interconnection seeker fail to come to an agreement under sub-regulation (1), the location of Points of Interconnection (POI), for calls between PSTN and PSTN or between PLMN and PSTN or between PLMN and PLMN or between PSTN and NLD network or between PLMN and NLD network, shall be at the Licensed Service Area (LSA) or Service Area level, as applicable:
Provided that the POIs, for calls between PSTN and PSTN or between PLMN and PSTN or between PLMN and PLMN or between PSTN and NLD network or between PLMN and NLD network, at one additional location within LSA or service area may also be established based on mutual agreement between the interconnection provider and the interconnection seeker:
Provided further that the interconnected service providers shall close the existing POIs at the LDCA or SDCA level within a period of three years from the 1st January, 2027, as detailed hereunder:-
- (a) by the end of the first year from the 1st January, 2027, the average monthly MoUs carried through LDCA or SDCA level POIs of the LSA during the three complete calendar months immediately preceding the completion of the first year from the 1st January, 2027 shall not exceed eighty percent of the average monthly MoUs carried through such POIs during the three complete calendar months immediately preceding the 1st January, 2027;
- (b) by the end of the second year from the 1st January, 2027, the average monthly MoUs carried through LDCA or SDCA level POIs of the LSA during the three complete calendar months immediately preceding the completion of the second year from the 1st January, 2027 shall not exceed forty-five percent of the average monthly MoUs carried through such POIs during the three complete calendar months immediately preceding the 1st January, 2027; and
- (c) by the end of the third year from the 1st January, 2027, all existing LDCA or SDCA level POIs of the LSA shall be closed and no MoUs shall be carried through such POIs and all telecommunication traffic shall be handed over or taken over at the LSA or Service Area level, as applicable:
Provided also that no infrastructure charges or port charges shall be payable by one service provider to another service provider in respect of SDCA/LDCA-level POI(s), after the expiry of three years from the 1st January, 2027."
- After regulation 9A of the principal regulations, the following regulation shall be inserted, namely:-
"9B. IP-based Interconnection.---(1) The service providers shall establish IP-based interconnection for all interconnections established on or after the 1st January, 2027.
