Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Free Roaming Services
One of the objectives of the New Telecom Policy – 2012 is to work towards ‘one nation – free roaming’. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said that as per the provisions of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, 1997 as amended from time to time, TRAI prescribes tariffs for telecommunication services in India. Taking into consideration the declared intent of the New Telecom Policy – 2012 for roaming charges, TRAI undertook a comprehensive consultation process to prescribe roaming charges. TRAI had decided not to mandate the implementation of a system in which the calling party pays for a national roaming call in view of the high costs and operational complications involved and had also concluded that it may not be feasible to remove charges for the incoming call while on national roaming. Further, as a result of a comprehensive consultation process, TRAI issued 55th amendment to Telecom Tariff Order (TTO) 1999 on 17.06.2013, which came into effect from 01.07.2013. This amendment brought about the following changes in the tariff regime for national roaming service:
