TRAI seeks views on roaming charges

Telecom Regulator TRAI has floated a consultation paper to bring down the rates of mobile calls and SMSes that are currently charged from a customer on availing roaming facility. 

Among various options to reduce or remove additional cost burden on roaming customers, TRAI has proposed a new norm—Home Price Rule—wherein a mobile subscriber should be charged the same amount that he pays when he is not roaming. 

As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, mobile phone customers on roaming are generally charged Re 1 for outgoing local call, R1.5 for outgoing STD call and Re 1 for incoming call on per minute basis. For each outgoing SMS, customers are generally charged R1.5. 

On the other hand, when customer is not roaming an outgoing local call costs him/her around 72 paise, outgoing STD call 90 paise, each local SMS Re 1 and STD SMS in range of R1.5 to R3.45, according to TRAI. 

‘‘It is deemed necessary to undertake an exercise to review the framework for tariffs for national roaming. An additional consideration for carrying out this review is to address the objective of working towards’’ One Nation - Free Roaming’’ stated in the National Telecom Policy 2012,’’ TRAI said. 

TRAI added that the aspiration for ‘‘removal of roaming charges is an aspect of the overall policy thrust towards removal of geographic barriers in licensing and telecom operations to promote free mobility for usage of communications facilities in the country.’’

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/1759-trai-seeks-views-on-roaming-charges.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/1759-trai-seeks-views-on-roaming-charges.html