The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has once again approached service providers to seek their views on ending roaming charges across the country.
TRAI has sought operators? views on the tariff regime for video calls and SMS on national roaming and on allowing special tariff vouchers for national roaming service. The regulatory body has invited comments from the services providers on the consultation paper by March 18, 2013. Also, it has set March 25, 2013 as the deadline for the operators to submit their counter arguments on the matter.
The consultation paper floated by TRAI aims to analyse the pros and cons of different approaches to the regulation of tariffs for the possible implementation of free national roaming.
In December 2012, TRAI had initiated the first round of consultation on free roaming, as part of which, it sought operators? views on issues comprising – the way the costs should be recovered in case of free incoming calls, tariff for video calls and text messages when a customer is roaming, and the need for allowing special tariff vouchers for subscribers when they are on roaming.
Responding to TRAI?s consultation paper, majority of the operators had opposed the proposal of doing away with roaming charges which account for about 10 per cent of operators? combined revenues. They stated that service providers would have to raise tariffs to offset the loss on account of abolition of roaming charges. Further, operators indicated that STD tariffs, which are on an average 60-70 per cent higher than the local calls, would have to be reduced to bring uniformity in pricing mechanism.
Currently, operators charge Re 1 per minute for incoming calls and Re 1.50 per minute for outgoing calls on roaming. As envisaged in the National Telecom Policy 2012, the government intends to abolish roaming charges. Users have to pay roaming charges while using the same mobile number in the telecom zones outside their home circle.
