Mobile Roaming May Cost Less

[Arun 795]

New Delhi , Sept. 17

The Hindu Business Line

MOBILE roaming charges are set to come down by 50 per cent with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) planning to fix a ceiling of Rs 1.75 per minute on roaming airtime charges.

This will bring down the overall roaming tariff, which includes interconnection charges and other levies, to a low of Rs 2 per minute compared with Rs 3.75 per minute being charged by operators currently for mobile-to-mobile local calls.

STD calls made while roaming are also expected to come down to a low of Rs 3.20 a minute compared with Rs 4.90 per minute now.

Roaming charges comprise two components - airtime and interconnection charges.

The existing ceiling for roaming airtime is Rs 3.45 a minute and the interconnection charges vary according to the distance of the call made.

While the issue of interconnection charges, which include access deficit charges, is being taken up by the telecom regulator separately, for the moment it is proposed that airtime charges be set at a flat rate of Rs 1.75 a minute for both incoming and outgoing calls.

If the proposal is approved by the TRAI, it will reduce roaming charges across the board including mobile-to-fixed calls.

Mobile roaming charges have been on the rise in the last few months, touching a high of Rs 6 a minute in certain sectors, against Rs 1.99 a minute a year ago.

While operators blamed the imposition of access deficit charges as the reason for the hike, the real reason is the lack of perceived competition from rival CDMA-based operators.

The impetus for a decrease in roaming tariffs a year ago was the entry of Reliance Infocomm, the CDMA-based player, with a tariff of 40 paise a minute.

This forced GSM-based operators to drop mobile-to-mobile roaming charges to Rs 1.99 from the then prevailing rates of Rs 6.44 a minute.

While average revenue per user for cellular firms has been dipping, revenues from roaming services have been on the rise.

While roaming services contributed about 9 per cent of the total revenue a year back, they now account for 11 per cent of the operators' revenues.

The biggest users are the post-paid subscribers, whose roaming bill accounts for 20 per cent of the total compared with 1 per cent by pre-paid users.