Government to abolish roaming charges from next year
India’s union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said that the
mobile phone users in the country will no longer have to pay roaming charges
from the coming year.
The removal of roaming charges was earlier proposed as part
of the National Telecom Policy 2012 of the government for governing the telecom
sector in the country. The NTP 2012, which was approved by the government in
May, allows mobile phone users to use the same number across the country
without paying extra charges, besides doing away with any roaming charges.
GSM industry body COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews sad
that the industry members will look at details relating to the implementation
of the new regulations. On concerns about the impact on tariffs, he said that
the industry will work with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to
determine the tariffs. TRAI is expected to follow the process through a
consultation paper involving various players.
Meanwhile, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said the
Department of Telecom (DoT) will work on licence (UL) guidelines, which are
also part of the NTP 2012, after it completes the work on the spectrum auction
for telecom service providers.
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