The Hindu Business Line : Roaming charges turn dearer

USING your mobile phone while travelling out of station has become more expensive. Cellular operators using GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology have hiked their roaming tariff by Rs 1.50 per minute from May 1.

The hike was effected by GSM operators such as Airtel, Hutch and Idea from Saturday, officials of these companies said.

Industry sources indicated that even CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) operators such as Reliance and Tata were likely to increase their roaming charges in the next few days.

"After unified licensing, both GSM and CDMA operators have been working in concert. Without the concurrence of the CDMA operators, it is difficult to imagine that the GSM operators would jack up their rates," an industry source said, adding that the cellular industry expects Reliance and Tata to announce higher roaming charges in the "next few days".

A Reliance spokesperson, however, denied that there was any move to increase charges. "As of now, there is no change in any of our tariffs. If there is any change, an announcement would be made," the spokesperson said.

GSM operators justified the increase in roaming charges saying that, "it was simply a promotional offer that has been partly withdrawn".

"Earlier, we were charging Rs 3 per minute for roaming. It was later brought down as a promotional offer due to competition and now we have increased it partially. It should not worry our customers too much," said a senior executive of a GSM mobile operator.

According to the revised tariffs, a GSM subscriber will now have to pay Rs 3.49 per minute for making a local call while roaming and Rs 4.49 per minute for calling another GSM phone beyond 200 km. Earlier, the subscriber had to pay Rs 1.99 and Rs 2.99 per minute for such calls, respectively.

The charges for cellular to fixed phones will now range from Rs 4.49 per minute to Rs 6.49 per minute, depending on the distance called. Even these charges have been increased by Rs 1.50 per minute.

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