Roaming charges to fall from 1 July

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today announced a reduction in charges for national roaming calls and SMSes effective 1 July and instituted a new regime for providing flexibility to telecom service providers to customise tariffs for national roamers through STVs and Combo Vouchers.

TRAI has also mandated two types of free national roaming plans to be provided by all telecom service providers. Offers such as special tariff vouchers (STVs) and combo vouchers for both pre-paid and post-paid customers would be now available.

The ceilings on roaming charges for STD calls have been reduced to Re1 per minute and Re1.50 per minute, respectively, TRAI said.

It had prescribed a ceiling of Rs1.40 per minute for outgoing local calls and Rs2.40 per minute for outgoing STD calls in 2007.

Similarly, the ceiling tariffs for incoming calls while on national roaming have been reduced from Rs1.75 per minute to 75 paise per minute.

TRAI said outgoing SMS (local) would now cost a maximum Rs1 per SMS and outgoing SMS (for STD) will be charged Rs1.50 per SMS. Incoming SMS will remain free of charge.

Tariffs for outgoing SMS while on national roaming, which were earlier under forbearance, have now been capped: outgoing SMS - local at Re1.00 per SMS and outgoing SMS-STD at Rs1.50 per SMS. Incoming SMS will remain free of charge.

All these changes will come into effect from 1 July 2013, the regulator said in a release.

Announcing this, TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar said this is a step towards making national roaming free. However, the telecom regulator said there would be no free national roaming at least for the next one year.

''Mandating a fully free roaming regime is simply not practical at this juncture. Compelling a transition to a fully free national roaming regime would result in telecom service providers not being able to recover their costs from roamers,'' Khullar told reporters.

TRAI initiated the exercise to review national roaming tariffs earlier this year in the context of decline in costs and the declared move towards 'One Nation-Free Roaming' in the New Telecom Policy-2012.

The regulator said STVs and combo vouchers would give the service providers possible flexibility tariffs for each kind of customers.

TRAI expects the move to benefit all subscribers through competitive pricing below the new ceiling levels.

''The provision for STVs and Combo Vouchers as well as special tariff plans for roaming tariff will allow the service providers to cater to the specific roaming needs of different customer segments.''

The new regime provides reduced ceilings and free roaming facilities for roamers without impacting customers who do not use the roaming facility.