The Hindu Business Line : TRAI wants tariff cut for mobile roaming services

Tariffs for roaming services on mobile phones are set to come down drastically with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposing to review the current pricing structure being offered by the various operators.

TRAI has said that the cost of offering services have come down by as much as 67 per cent on a yearly basis and this should be reflected in the tariffs.

The telecom regulator suggested doing away with the monthly rental being charged by operators and removing the premium charge for availing short messaging services while roaming.

It has sought industry comments on the proposals in a consultation paper issued on Friday.

Currently service providers levy a monthly rental of about Rs 50 for access to national roaming services and SMS is charged at a maximum of Rs 3.50.

For an outgoing call, GSM operators's tariff ranges from Rs 2.89 to Rs 3.99 per minute while the CDMA operator's roaming charges for local outgoing calls range from Re 1 to Rs 3.99.

Charges for an incoming call while roaming vary from Rs 3.09 to Rs 3.99 per minute among the private GSM operators while CDMA operators' incoming roaming tariff ranges from Rs 1.00 to Rs 3.99.

TRAI has noted that while the roaming tariffs have come down from a maximum of Rs 13 a minute in 2002 to Rs 3.99 at present, the operators have not done enough to bring the airtime charges which has remained at Rs 3 over the last 4 years.

"TRAI is of the view that there is a case for revisiting ceiling tariffs fixed by it for roaming services in 2002.

The market for roaming services is not sufficiently competitive.

There is a growing impression among the subscribers of mobile services and other stakeholders that there is a strong case to revisit the roaming tariffs," TRAI said.