TRAI Reduces National Roaming Tariff Ceilings, Permits Customised Tariffs Through Special Tariff Vouchers for National Roamers and Mandates Free National Roaming Plans.
TRAI has reduced ceilings for national roaming calls and SMS 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. These changes will come into effect from 1st July 2013.
National roaming service is the facility provided to a subscriber to use his cell-phone to make and receive voice calls and SMS when travelling outside the geographical coverage area of his home network, by using a visited network. In the Indian context, national roaming refers to facilities for making and receiving calls and SMS when the subscriber is travelling in a State which is different from the State of his residence.
The present exercise to review national roaming tariffs was initiated by TRAI earlier this year in the context of decline in costs and the declared intent in the New Telecom Policy-2012 to move towards One Nation-Free Roaming throughout the country.
