India Broadband

Indian mobile service providers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have both announced their reduced roaming tariffs.

These two companies have also announced the scrapped rental rates for roaming services. These announcements are to meet the recently released guidelines issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India last month.

Bharti Airtel said that they have now slashed roaming charges by 56%. They have also now waived off the roaming rental of Rs 49 per month.

In addition, their local calls while roaming will be charged at Rs 1.40 per minute. STD calls would be charged at a fixed 2.40 per minute. Incoming calls on roaming would cost Rs 1.75 per minute.

Sanjay Kapoor, joint president (mobile services), Bharti Airtel added on these new announcements: “We now usher in an era of simplified roaming tariffs wherein all Airtel mobile users will benefit from our seamless network and have the opportunity to make calls while traveling anywhere in India.”

Reliance on the other hand has announced that they are reducing their roaming charges by up to 44% on its pre-paid connections. They have not been charging any roaming fees from their customers.

Indian mobile service providers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have both announced their reduced roaming tariffs.

These two companies have also announced the scrapped rental rates for roaming services. These announcements are to meet the recently released guidelines issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India last month.

Bharti Airtel said that they have now slashed roaming charges by 56%. They have also now waived off the roaming rental of Rs 49 per month.

In addition, their local calls while roaming will be charged at Rs 1.40 per minute. STD calls would be charged at a fixed 2.40 per minute. Incoming calls on roaming would cost Rs 1.75 per minute.

Sanjay Kapoor, joint president (mobile services), Bharti Airtel added on these new announcements: “We now usher in an era of simplified roaming tariffs wherein all Airtel mobile users will benefit from our seamless network and have the opportunity to make calls while traveling anywhere in India.”

Reliance on the other hand has announced that they are reducing their roaming charges by up to 44% on its pre-paid connections. They have not been charging any roaming fees from their customers.

Government owned telecom company MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) has now announced that they are slashing the national roaming rates with effect from 15th Feb’2007.

This announcement is to comply with the recent ruling of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The company said in a release that all local calls on roaming will be charged at Rs. 1.40 per minute from the existing Rs. 1.50 per minute. They would also be levying a 14% surcharge.

MTNL added that STD calls on roaming would cost Rs.2.40 per minute. Earlier they were charging a surcharge of 14%.

Incoming calls on roaming would cost the customer Rs. 1.75 per minute. This is down from Rs. 2.50 per minute. The company already does not charge any roaming charges from their customers.

TRAI has some exciting news for the mobile phone users in the country. The regulatory body has announced that they are slashing the mobile roaming tariffs by up to 56 per cent.

They have also now scrapped the rental for roaming services. This would be good news for those customers who travel a lot within the country.

This new tariff order would be applicable from February 15. TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra said in a statement that the new ruling would reduce roaming tariffs from 22 to 56 per cent as compared with the current market rates.

TRAI has also said that the incoming SMS would be free while roaming for the mobile users in the country.

They have also scrapped the 15 per cent on air-time while roaming and separate PSTN charge.

Misra added: “TRAI would closely monitor market developments on roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it would revisit the issue and even consider forbearing roaming tariffs.”

TRAI said that they had to come out with this ruling because the service providers in the country were not doing enough for their customers.