National Telecom Policy 2011 - No More Roaming Charges!

[KapilAgrawal 340]

^^^

Agree with KanagaDeepan.

[omk4r 2]

some say they are even talking about increasing gprs speed is it true?

Whatever the politicians say doesn't even matter, in near future its the private companies which will frame the policies for the govt to implement

and this is not too far it has already started, if its less profitable bags will be transferred and the draft will be unheard of again.

Edited October 12, 2011 by omk4r

[luvrit 15]

Well... talking in financial terms....

only variable expense in telecom business is license fees/royalty. next is inter-operator charges - which generally gets nullified

rest like salaries, tower rentals, admin cost are mostly fixed expense in nature. So for operators, all it boils down to revenue per user (no matter what user is using)

So in long term, it would go down as fixed revenue per user (whatever u use and wherever u use)

new telecom policy hints this message. (if u remember- in old time, MTNL had no per min charges, it used to be per call charges and i know many guys in financial services used to have 24 hrs FAX on with jus one call). history can repeat itself

secondly, big brother Reliance Inds is entering in the mkt. one can expect fireworks.... and fireworks cant jus happen on data.... It has to come on voice either with launch or later on....and technically (others plz qualify as i m no expert); there s no difference between data and voice. In fact data intensity is notch higher than voice... so what is just constrined by leagal and not technological can be exploited sooner than later and looking at reliance inds gameplan, it s better be sooner.

[anshu_s09 18]

Bit off-topic but

Let the VOIP start........ then lets see where the tariff war will go........

we will b getting all india unlimited calls with some 500- 700 or 1000 bugs

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Let the VOIP start........ then lets see where the tariff war will go........

we will b getting all india unlimited calls with some 500- 700 or 1000 bugs

You said it unknowingly..

Yes there will be bugs in VOIP implementation in India, not 500-700 but only 3-4 consisting of GSM Cartel which will fight till the end not to allow it, otherwise their inflow of bucks gets reduced..

[gpkumaran 21]

I don't think this might happen in near future.

anyway, talking about 3g licenses,I read somewhere in the net that Indian operators who haven't got licenses in 2100 mhz 3g Band may launch it in the 900 mhz bandfor which they already have a license. Any body got any idea about this?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[cu_karan 0]

Hi Friends,

I just went to Reliance web world, here in ahmedabad, for activating of Roaming pack.

they told me that from immediate effect all Roaming pack/offers has been cancelled. Because all type of Roaming charges are going to be cancelled w.e.f. 1st January, 2012.

Kindly confirm with your local/nearest Reliance web world and pls. post here.

bye bye.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

^^^

Looks too good to be true. Why would Reliance let go revenue even before the final approved policy is pending to be notified at a future date!!!

[sgiitk 32]

Fingers & Toes crossed!!!

[Rahul Always 87]

Would be really good. It would basically result in end of telecom circles as we know it. Any number anywhere in the country can be used seamlessly almost akin to "payable at par cheques". We would no longer require to shift numbers once we shift locations! Sounds brilliant. Lets hope it comes soon!

[Dushie 30]

Waiting for this to happen , as this would lead to drastic reduction in new no's and people having multiple no's for local and roaming, all and all this would be an excellent move.Waiting for it to happen

[chitshar 25]

Today I also went to reliance world in Patna. The customer care guy the senior most person whom others were calling sir also said to me that roaming will go away from feb 2012.

[amit9000 2]

ROAMING FREE After policy changed

and the fact is Policy is pending due to many prob.

like. : D.O.T issue seprate lic. for each circle each provider so need to re issue single lic for all circle.

and if issue single lic as a new service provider then what abt existing service provider

and many more other prob.

Or Bhai logo "2G" ke baad "Manmohan G" or "Sonia G" alert ho gaye hain kyon ki "ANNA JI" Dekh rahe hain so wait till 2014

[me_saket 73]

New telecom policy to be in place by May: Sibal

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3324430.ece

The government on Tuesday said the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 will be in place by May.

“It (NTP) will be done in May. We have already said that,” IT and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of World IT Forum 2012.

The Economic Survey had estimated NTP to be in place by June.

The government through new telecom policy has made attempt to set roadmap for functioning and development of telecom sector starting 2012.

According to government sources, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is about to start inter-ministerial consultation on NTP 2012 after which the policy will be moved to the Cabinet for approval.

Under NTP 2012, it has been proposed to de-link spectrum from licences, reduce number of different licences, give industry liberal mergers and acquisition norms and remove roaming charges burden from consumers. They will also be allowed to retain same number across country.

On Monday, sector regulator TRAI issued recommendations for Unified Licences that will be de-linked from spectrum and issued to all new companies entering sector under NTP 2012.

These guidelines are vital for telecom companies whose licences have been cancelled by Supreme Court in February.

Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar has said that DoT will try and speed up the new licensing regime in less than three months.

Once approved, telecom companies can apply for telecom licences without owning spectrum and can perform businesses that can be carried out without using paid spectrum.

TRAI has recommended one time non-refundable entry fee for Unified Licence shall be Rs 15 crore for National level, Rs 1 crore for each Service area level Unified Licences, except for Jammu and Kashmir and North East Service areas where entry fee will be Rs 50 lakh each.

For each District level Unified Licence, the regulator has requested non-refundable entry fee of Rs 10 lakh.

TRAI said it should be entrusted with the function of issuing unified licences. At present, DoT issues all types of telecom licences.

[me_saket 73]

If U R Corepati, Then You Can Start Ur Own Telecom Company

Get district license at just rs 10Lakh, no infrastructural cost needed, can use existing infrastructure and start telecom company as MVNO

TRAI recommends district-level telecom operators in new unified license

Overruling objections by big telecom operators, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended allowing district-level operators.

Anyone, including local cable operators, will now be able to offer landline and mobile, Internet and other services after paying the Rs 10 lakh entry fee per district, if the recommendations are accepted by the Government.

In addition, there will also be a national-level license, saving operators the trouble of applying for a license in every state.

Taking a different approach to the wireless-is-everything thinking, the Indian telecom regulator TRAI also pushed for strong roll-out and incentives for fibre optic networks in the country.

It also wants the government to allow people to make calls from their computers to phones through VoIP -- services such as Skype and Google Voice (Gmail.)

In its recommendations on how to merge existing licenses and create a “Unified Licence” encompassing Internet, mobile, landline and media distribution, the TRAI dismissed the opposition of big operators to the entry of small, district-level operators.

It pointed out that district-level operators, either independent or virtual (MVNO) is possible in today’s atmosphere.

“Studies have shown that nearly 70% of the outgoing traffic from rural areas is meant for a destination within the district. Of this only 20% traffic goes to another district and hardly 10% to another State. International calls represent less than 1% of the traffic,” it pointed out.

“Such licences will spur local initiatives in creation of broadband infrastructure and introduction of innovative services. There is a possibility of smaller players like cable operators and infrastructure providers coming in. This would lead to larger infrastructure creation and

introduction of newer technologies in the network,” it said.

“All these would translate into higher broadband penetration, greater contribution of telecom to Indian economy, fair and equitable access to the triple-play [voice-data-media] network within communities at district level and more affordable services to the customers.

“It is expected that with the inception of a district level licence, we would see country wide availability of a wide range of services within the next 2-3 years,” it added.

TRAI pointed out that the existence of large number of state-level operators has not led to much improvement in the penetration of services, especially broadband and landline, in India’s rural heartland.

It pointed out that state-level operators focus only on district headquarters, especially in broadband, and tend to leave the other areas out.

“A national or a circle level operator would have a dispersed focus and cannot plan with same intensity for each and every district. The overall objective of planning and allocation of resources for such an operator would be to optimize on a national or circle basis as the case may be.

“A district level licensee, on the other hand, could focus on spreading services all over the district and would be able to do so in much lower outlay as compared to what national/circle level operators would do for their service areas.

“A district level operator can also focus well on the requirement of the ‘local’ population taking care of local tastes, preferences, culture and language options,” it added.

“The existing roll out obligations were very lenient and urban centric. The service providers were mandated to provide coverage only in the district headquarters or major towns as a result of which, even 15 years after the introduction of mobile service in the country, the rural teledensity was low...

“most of the broadband proliferation is taking place in the urban areas with only about 5% of the total broadband connections being in rural areas,” it added.

It also dismissed the argument that wireless broadband, such as 4G TD-LTE and Wimax, will be able to fulfill the demand for high-speed Internet.

“Provision of broadband through wireless has limitations. The bandwidth offered by prevalent wireless technologies is shared among the users active in a cell, making it difficult to offer high bandwidth required by many applications in rural and urban areas.

“.. in rural areas applications like e-health, tele-education other services would require bandwidth in the range of 3-4 Mbps.

“In urban areas applications like video streaming, HDTV and 3G gaming would push up the requirement to 8 Mbps or more in future.

“In such a scenario wireless broadband cannot be the sole means of broadband proliferation in rural and urban areas. In addition, increasing broadband traffic will give rise to greater requirement of scarce spectrum.

“According to a study about 70% of wireless traffic is generated indoors resulting in wasteful use of spectrum. The choice therefore shifts to optical fiber and cable as important media

for proliferation of broadband.

“Optical fibre networks being cost effective, resilient, robust, supporting low latency and easily upgradable are being perceived as long term solution to support enormous bandwidth requirement in the core, aggregation and access networks.

The Government is already setting up a National Broadband Network, which will be an open

access optical fibre network extending upto the villages. TRAI pointed out that district-level operators, including cable TV providers, will be able to tap into this fibre network and extend it to the local population for very high speed Internet.

It recommended a an entry fee of Rs. One crore for the state level, 15 crore for national level and Rs. 10 lakh for the district.

Currently, operators have to pay Rs 200 crore for the state-level license, the only one in existence.

It also said that Internet users in India should be allowed to call phones directly from their computers if they so wish, as is possible in most parts of the world.

“Accordingly, Internet telephony has been included in the scope of the Unified Licence,” the TRAI said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://online.wsj.co...3959516814.html

NEW DELHI – India's telecommunications regulator Monday proposed the government should allow all telecom services under one license and charge an entry fee of 150 million rupees ($2.9 million) for a permit covering the whole country, in an effort to simplify the process for companies wanting to enter the sector.

At present, companies need to take separate permits for each of India's 22 telecom service areas and for different offerings such as fixed-line services, basic mobile telephony and Internet.

Apart from the pan-India license, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recommended two other levels of licenses -- at service area and district levels -- with a one-time entry fee of 10 million rupees and 1 million rupees, respectively. For the service areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, which are considered remote, it suggested an entry fee of 5 million rupees.

A service area usually covers a state or a large city.

Apart from the entry fee, operators will need to continue paying a portion of their adjusted gross revenue as annual license fee, it proposed.

In February, the telecom minister said under unified licenses, telecom companies would have to pay 8% of their adjusted gross revenue as fees.

Telecom operators currently pay 6%-10% of their revenue as license fees for basic mobile services, depending on the areas in which they operate.

The proposals will be discussed by the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in the telecom department, which will make a final decision. They are expected to become part of a new telecom policy, which will likely be announced by June.

The new policy comes amid India's drive to clean up the telecom sector following allegations of large-scale rigging in a sale of licenses and bandwidth in 2008, which put the government under pressure. The Supreme Court recently cancelled all the 122 licenses allotted without auctions in 2008.

The regulator has also suggested bringing telecom tower companies under the license regime and proposed that foreign companies be allowed to hold up to a 74% stake in tower firms, as is the case for telecom operators

[volstagg 24]

Along with the roaming chargers, I would be extremely happy if they abolished the blackout days for sms. It's just plain cheating

Sent from my motorola photon 4G

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Final Cabinet approved National Telecom Policy 2012 Document attached here.

Regarding Roaming Charges it says only this,

3.14. To review roaming charges with the ultimate objective of removing the roaming charge across the nation.

It took 9 months for this govt. to announce the policy.

How many years before it is implemented?

NTP 2012.pdf

[KapilAgrawal 340]

TATA Docomo CDMA & GSM have started a new pack of 46 for Prepaid, Where Roaming Incoming is free for 60 days. Loving it.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

^^^^^

In BSNL prepaid, Rs153 recharge changes plan to RoamFREE plan with 3 months validity... Also Docomo postpaid has RoamFREE plans for more than a year... I am using them both..

[KapilAgrawal 340]

^^^

Reliance CDMA has roam free plans since more than 4 years.

[pabitrak5 7]

^^^

Reliance CDMA has roam free plans since more than 4 years.

dear kapil

I am a postpaid customer of rcdma ...please inform me the roaming free plan details ...

regards

pabitra

Sent from my SCH-I559 using Tapatalk

[KapilAgrawal 340]

^^^

they seem to have discontinued the plan. before it was 995 where all Reliance to Reliance calls were free including Reliance LL, GSM. Incoming call were totally free & R-R call while roaming were also free.

Attached proof. Extracted from my Reliance PostPaid Bill dated 09-sept-10

Edited July 6, 2012 by KapilAgrawal

[sougatadc 358]

Telecom minister on Monday announced that roaming charges will be done away with from next year. When asked when does the government plan to remove roaming charges as per the National Telecom Policy 2012, Sibal said it will be free from next year. So, it will definitely be a change for what we all are waiting.

See here

[_Kailash_ 63]

Actually the next year is the year of consolidation for the congress, so they will keep the best for the last, so that they can show that, what what they have done for the people of India, i dont think it will be done by next year end......

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk 2

[ashokb 11]

I don't think this might happen in near future.

anyway, talking about 3g licenses,I read somewhere in the net that Indian operators who haven't got licenses in 2100 mhz 3g Band may launch it in the 900 mhz bandfor which they already have a license. Any body got any idea about this?

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

This will happen when tech neutral licenses release and this can be best thing to happen as 900 mhz will be best for indoor coverage.