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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday reduced ceiling tariffs for national roaming calls and SMS and has mandated telecom service providers (TSPs) to offer special roaming tariff plans.
Tariff reductions The regulator has also reduced outgoing voice calls while on national roaming to 80 paise a minute from ₹1/ minute at present.
Outgoing local SMS rates on national roaming have been reduced to 25 paise per message from the existing ₹1.
For outgoing long-distance (inter-circle) voice calls on national roaming, the tariff has been cut to ₹1.15/minute from ₹1.50/minute. For outgoing long-distance SMS on national roaming, charges have been reduced to 38 paise/SMS from ₹1.50/SMS.
Similarly, charges on incoming voice calls on roaming have been reduced to 45 paise/minute from the existing ceiling of 75 paise/minute.
“Through this amendment order, the Authority has removed the existing mandate to the TSPs for providing roaming tariff plan (RTP) and RTP-free, and has mandated the TSPs to offer a special roaming tariff plan to its pre-paid and post-paid subscribers,” Sudhir Gupta, Secretary, TRAI said in a statement.
In special roaming tariff plan, incoming voice calls on national roaming shall be free, or on payment of fixed charge, he said, adding that all subscribers will benefit from the reduced ceilings, as competitive pricing below the new ceiling levels is expected. The regulator said since the ceiling tariffs for outgoing voice calls and SMS on national roaming have been cut to reasonable levels, the need for mandating separate tariff plans, in which roaming tariffs are equal to home tariffs, no longer exists.
Impact on profitability Analysts said these ceiling tariffs are good for consumers but would impact the profitability of telecom companies, given the high price they have to pay for spectrum, new technology rollout and government levies. “Revenue from SMS was reducing anyway due to over the top messenger Apps and these new ceilings will further hit telcos’ revenue from roaming SMS. This will bring into focus the debate on net neutrality,” Hemant Joshi, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, said.
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