TRAI dials up international regulators for lowering roaming tariffs

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has opened channels with its counterparts in other countries, including the UK, to address the issue of high tariffs for international roaming services. TRAI has suggested that regulators should ask local operators in their countries to enable bilateral roaming agreements aimed at bringing down the tariffs.

At present, international roaming services come at a premium even though the cost of offering this has come down drastically due to better routing technology. For example, an Indian consumer travelling in Europe has to pay over Rs 200 a minute for both incoming and outgoing calls. Similarly, foreign travellers coming into India have to pay a hefty amount for making and receiving calls. According to TRAI officials, it has been suggested that regulators should find a way to get operators in their respective country to offer cheaper roaming tariffs. TRAI is internally preparing a paper on this issue.

Officials, however, said that the process is only at the nascent stage and could take time to implement because of multiple agencies involved. Besides, there is strong opposition from the operators to any reduction as it will impact their revenues.

TRAI's earlier initiatives to reduce international roaming rates had also met with opposition. The regulator had earlier requested the European Commission to extend the benefits of its reduced roaming rates within Europe to Indian mobile users too. (Customers roam without incurring roaming charges within EU). However, the majority of European mobile operators were not in favour of the move. TRAI had also sent a proposal to the SAARC countries to replicate the EU model. However, the proposal never went through.

TRAI officials feel that this time its suggestion could find takers because the number of foreign travellers coming into India has increased over the past few years and hence, if the roaming tariffs were to go down, it would equally benefit foreign consumers.

Meanwhile, TRAI has already asked Indian mobile service providers to check unwanted calls to customers while they are on roaming networks abroad. TRAI has ordered service providers to provide ring-back tones to all subscribers who have signed up for international roaming services. The customised ring-back tone will inform callers that the mobile phone user is outside the country.

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