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- TRAI has reduced the roaming tariff rates for call and messages
- Reduces national roaming tariff ceiling
- Permits customised tariffs through STV for national roamers
- Mandates free national roaming plan
Telecom regulator TRAI has announced reduction in tariff for call and messages on roaming. This move will bring down the telephone bills drastically. It has mandated that two types of free national roaming plans has to be provided by all telecom service providers. These changes will come into effect from July 1, 2013, it added.
The changes will come into effect from next month. “TRAI has reduced ceilings for national roaming calls and SMS and instituted a new regime for providing flexibility to telecom service providers to customize tariffs for national roamers through STVs (Special Tariff Vouchers) and Combo Vouchers,” the regulator said in a statement.
“With increased subscribers and usage, the costs associated with national roaming have declined, but not vanished. There are still real costs incurred in providing the national roaming facility.
“Mandating a fully free roaming regime is simply not practicable 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,” the regulator said. In order to recover these costs, the providers will pass on these costs to non roamers.
The limits are: outgoing local message Rs.1, STD message Rs.1.50, outgoing local call Rs.1, STD Rs.1.50 and STD incoming call Rs.0.75.
