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Thomas K Thomas

New Delhi May 31 Cellular operators have told the Government that offering free roaming services to mobile users will not be a viable proposition. This comes even as the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is expected to announce a new tariff plan with lower roaming charges. The BSNL plan will, however, not offer free roaming as was indicated by the former Communications Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran. It may offer domestic roaming for as low as Re 1 per minute on incoming calls compared to a maximum of Rs 2.40 per minute at present.

It may, however, offer this scheme with higher rentals of around Rs 400 a month. "Discounts in roaming will have to be in the form of a new tariff plan where subscribers end up paying a higher rental for lower per minute charges. The rates for most operators cannot be zero as there is a 65 paise carriage charge and 30 paise termination charge involved, which have to be covered when a person receives an incoming call while roaming,'' said a GSM operator.

For BSNL though, the roaming charges could be lower because it has its own long distance network and therefore does not have to pay the carriage charges. Once the company initiates the reduction in roaming, other operators are expected to follow suit.

Reliance Communication had earlier offered roaming charges of Re 1 per minute anywhere in the country as an introductory offer, which was subsequently increased.

Most private operators would be in a position to drop it to around Re 1 per minute in the coming weeks combined with higher rentals. "Even if an operator is assured of around Rs 500-600 a month compared to the existing average revenue per user of about Rs 350, then roaming can be brought down but not completely removed,'' said a GSM operator.

The new Communications Minister, Mr A. Raja, had earlier said that the Department of Telecommunications was looking at the possibility of lowering the domestic roaming charges.

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