India's telecom controller
has proposed to slash roaming call and SMS rates, by around 35% and 80%
individually.
The Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India on Friday disclosed a draft change to the Telecommunication
Tariff Order, 1999 for remarks of the stakeholders. Through the request, the
Trai expects to lessen the ceiling duties for National Roaming Service. National roaming service is
the service for a user to use all the services of the home network area
even when the user is visiting other regions using the visited areas network. According to the current system for telecom access benefits, the nation has
been partitioned into 22 authorized service zones.
The Trai has proposed to chop down most extreme charges that can be set on outgoing calls while roaming to 65 paise every minute, from ceiling charge of Re 1 every minute, under the most recent draft change of telecom tax order. It has additionally proposed to cut in long distance call or STD call rates amid roaming to Re 1 every minute, from most max charge of Rs 1.5 every minute. TRAI needs telecom organizations to charge a max of 45 paise every minute, rather than 75 paise allowed at present for incoming calls.
It said local SMS ought to
be charged 20 paise at at max Re.1 can be charged at present while roaming.
TRAI has proposed 25 paise for every STD SMS sent by clients when they are roaming,
contrasted with the ceiling tax of Rs 1.5 every SMS now.
The telecom controller has
looked for remarks from stakeholders by March 13, after which it will issue the
final directive.