National Roaming is Still Illusive

We feel ashamed as a nation that we have not been able to implement India as a roaming free nation. The Britishers had divided us and now this roaming has further sub divided in the regions. Have a look at the statement by Kapil Sibal where he announced India’s Draft New Telecom Policy 2011 and had stated that roaming will be totally done away with in year 2013. We feel sorry that statement of telecom minister do not hold any weight and this time while TRAI made a statement Mr Kapil Sibal went into hiding and has boldly eaten his words.

Have a look at statement issued by TRAI on roaming:

“With the increased subscribers and usage, the costs associated with National Roaming has declined but not vanished. There are still real costs incurred in providing national roaming. 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. In turn, telecom service providers would pass these costs on to all consumers (predominantly non-roamers) through their higher tariffs.”

Latest Roaming Tarriff  Rates Post Announcement wef 01 Jul 2013

<></> <></>

Service	Price New	Price Old
Outgoing Local	Re. 1 per minute	Rs. 1.40 per minute
Outgoing STD	Rs. 1.50 per minute	Rs. 2.40 per minute
Incoming	Rs. 0.75 per minute	Rs. 1.75 per minute

TRAI has decided to allow service providers to provide special offers and plans for people who need partial or free roaming service at a fixed charge. This means that a free India is still a far reality whereas countries like Pakistan and Srilanka have achieved same long time back.

Verdict

This statement by TRAI that roaming charges abolition is not possible is courtesy pressure by tele service providers as they make Crores of rupees in revenue from roaming services.

About the Author

At Indian Share Tips we keep track of latest happenings in all sectors which affect Indian stock market and we provide daily one stock tip for intraday trading to make money.