?
Rajan S. Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has said that long-distance calls cannot be charged at the same rate as local calls. He added that equating long-distance calls (referring to roaming rates) with local calls would force mobile companies to raise local call charges to recoup losses from abolition of roaming charges.
Hence, he says that treating India as one telecom circle is not appropriate, as this would mean raising prices for 80 per cent of mobile phone users because 20 per cent feel the need for lower roaming rates.
