The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is in talks with its counterparts in other countries, including the UK, to address the issue of high tariffs for international roaming services.
TRAI has suggested that the regulators should ask operators in their countries to enable bilateral roaming agreements aimed at reducing the tariffs.
Currently, international roaming services are expensive, even though the cost of offering this service has reduced, owing to better routing technology.
Meanwhile, TRAI is preparing a paper on this issue. It is believed that the process is at the nascent stage and could take time to implement because of multiple agencies involved. Besides, there is strong opposition from the operators to any reduction as it will impact their revenues.
TRAI’s earlier initiatives to reduce international roaming rates were unsuccessful. The regulator had earlier requested the European Commission to extend the benefits of its reduced roaming rates within Europe to Indian mobile users too.
However, a majority of European mobile operators were not in favour of the move.
TRAI had also sent a proposal to the SAARC countries to replicate the EU model. However, the proposal never went through.
Meanwhile, TRAI has already asked Indian operators to check unwanted calls to customers while they are on roaming networks abroad. TRAI has asked service providers to provide ring-back tones to all subscribers who have signed up for international roaming services. The customised ring-back tone will inform callers that the mobile phone user is outside the country.
