Telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Videocon Telecom have reduced their national roaming tariffs by up to 40 per cent. The decline in roaming tariffs follows the reduction in ceiling rates by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The new tariffs for national roaming service will come into effect from May 1, 2015.
The rate for incoming calls has been reduced from Re 0.75 per minute to Re 0.45 per minute. Meanwhile, outgoing call rate has been reduced by 20 per cent from Re 1 per minute to Re 0.80 per minute. Further, the outgoing STD calls will now be charged at Rs 1.15 per minute as compared with Rs 1.50 per minute. The prices of text messages have also been reduced. Local SMS would be charged at Re 0.25 per SMS compared with Rs 1 per SMS earlier, while national SMS will be charged at Re 0.38 per SMS from Rs 1.50 per SMS earlier.
Telecom operators had initially opposed the TRAI?s move to reduce the ceiling on the grounds that it would further impact their voice telephony revenues. However, TRAI had argued that it will not review its decision to bring down the ceiling rates because the operators would be compensated by an increase in traffic.
