Roaming Charges Are Set To Fall By February 2007

[Arun 795]

Times News Network

12 Jan, 2007 0038 hrs IST

For those who travel frequently, it's now going to be far easier to keep in touch with work and family. For, despite opposition from industry, Trai is set to enforce lower roaming charges for consumers using mobile phones outside their service areas.

According to sources, Trai is strongly inclined to do away with the Rs 50 rental as well as the 15% surcharge on roaming.

It also intends to regulate incoming and outgoing call categories for both local and inter-circle calls at a lower rate. Trai's directive to mobile operators is expected by the month-end.

Trai favours the Home Pricing rule. Simply put, this will charge a roaming customer the same tariff as they would pay for calls in their home service area. For example, a Delhi mobile user, while in Mumbai, will pay the same rate as he pays in Delhi for the most part.

The numbers who will gain from this move are significant. Even if 10% of mobile users roam, that's nearly 1.5 crore subscribers who stand to benefit from the reduction.

It is the first time since 2002 that Trai is taking firm steps to reduce roaming tariffs which are much higher than the cost incurred by mobile operators to provide the facility.

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

interesting... Reliance Communitications very recently announced that roaming rental was hiked to Rs.50 from Rs.25 per month

[linuxguy 0]

arun, Reliance wants to make fast money. It must've come to know of TRAI's impending decision so it decided to make hay while the sun is still shining cuz later on TRAI's stick will come down hard on every operator's arse

[KumaarShah 143]

Exactly, ADA wants to make as much money as possible in the shortest time possible. Customers be damned.

[vmsanghrajka 0]

All mobile operators wanna make fast buck, rcl is not alone

[GSV13 0]

Yeah but Reliance is leader in that category!

[Kunal Hemrajani 1]

Yipee..at least sumbody is there to check these companies..

[Honest 836]

My dear friends

TRAI must come hard on all these operators who are looting customers.

Regards.

[linuxguy 0]

Yipee..at least sumbody is there to check these companies..

what is TRAI doing? NOTHING! Did it stop Reliance from suddenly increasing tariffs on ALL services within a short span of time?

[sanket55555 0]

TRAI cuts roaming charges by upto 56%

no roaming rentals from 15/02/07

no surcharge on calls while roaming

enjoyyyy

[HetalDP 947]

1. Roaming Rental will become Nill

2. Incoming SMS will be Free

3. Roaming charges to Become CHeaper by 22% to 56 % (cause of Sucharge Reduction)

4. Effective Order Date to Implement is 15-Feb-2007

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

Hetal Patel

Get Firefox

[Arun 795]

TRAI rocks !

Your roaming bill gets cheaper

IBNlive.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 13:51

New Delhi: Next time you go out of your cellular network and need to avail roaming service, your mobile bills will be much lesser than what you need to pay today.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Trai on Wednesday announced a cut in national roaming charges by 22 to 56 per cent. The new charges to be effective from February 15.

Announcing the cut, the Trai said there will be a single charge system for roaming from now on. The new roaming charges for cellular phone subscribers will be Rs 1.40 for outgoing local calls, Rs 2.40 for outgoing STD calls and Rs1.70 for incoming calls.

For the consumer, this may mean over 10 per cent drop in their mobile bills. The Trai move to reduce the roaming charges was bitterly opposed by cellular operators.

The telecom regulatory body says it wants to do away with the Rs 50 rental and 15 per cent surcharge in addition to a pruning of airtime charges which are currently much higher than local mobile call charges.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had earlier in January held an Open House Discussion in Delhi with all the stakeholders including national operators and other regional players on "Review of Ceiling Tariffs for Roaming Services".

Trai sources confirm only two things: that rental charges will go, and that the Authority is excercising forbearance on SMS charges.

However, the final maths on the surcharge and roaming call charges is still being worked out at the time this report was being filed. Following Wednesday's announcement, the new rates are likely to become effective from 1st April or perhaps even earlier.

Trai's move to reduce roaming tariffs for consumers by aligning them closer to costs has mobile operators fuming. But the good news is that unlike previous occasions, this time, they may be unable to take legal recourse.

Cellular operators admit they are not in a position to appeal against Trai's tariff order in Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) as TDSAT is unlikely to rule against a pro-consumer order. Especially as the basis of such an Order is cost data submitted by the operators themselves.

Telecom service providers case is further weakened by the fact that the Order is also consistent with Trai's interconnection regulation, which seeks cost-based, non-discriminatory interconnection between operators.

CDMA operators are even less likely to have a reason for appeal since their consumers roam only on their networks, unlike GSM subscribers who may sometimes roam on rival operators networks.

However, operators argue that Trai's intervention is unjustified as only a niche segment that can afford to pay a premium uses roaming. Trai, on the other hand, considers 1.5 crore consumers large enough to justify a reduction in roaming tariffs.

[kesav 127]

TRAI really rocks......

I'm really proud to say that Indian democracy works......

• Roaming tariff reduction order by TRAI is applicable for all

mobile customers, prepaid and postpaid, and applicable across all

types of tariff plans offered by both GSM and CDMA Mobile

Operators.

• Simple, transparent, distance neutral composite ceiling tariffs

specified.

• No rental permitted for roaming in any form.

• No surcharge is leviable for any of the national roaming services.

• No separate PSTN charges on roaming calls.

• Receiving SMS is free while roaming.

• Maximum permissible per minute charges for roaming calls,

irrespective of the terminating networks, and irrespective of

tariff plans would be:

- Rs. 1.40 for outgoing local calls

- Rs. 2.40 for outgoing NLD calls

- Rs. 1.75 for incoming calls

• Charges for outgoing SMS while roaming continues to be under

forbearance.

• Mobile operators can not charge any type of fixed or recurring

charges for accessing roaming facility, for example, monthly

rental, weekly rental , daily rental etc.

• Tariff Order would result in reduction of roaming tariffs to the

extent of 22% to 56% compared with the current market rates.

This is in addition to the saving for the customers on account of

abolition of rentals.

• Order becomes effective on 15th February 2007.

• The Authority would closely monitor market developments on

roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it

would revisit the issue and even consider forbearing roaming

tariffs.

source :: http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressRe...24jan07no15.pdf

[vmsanghrajka 0]

WoW!!! no rentals.. thts really nice

[HetalDP 947]

Simply Greate

I was also one of Individual who had made Recommendation along with all Operator

But it was very Bad that only 7 to 8 Individual COnsumer had Sent mail to TRAI for Recommendation regarding this Issue, So the Weight of Operator Become Heavier,

Thank to Dhiru. Dayanidhi Maran to Order TRAI / DOT / Operator to Take Bold Step on this Ground.

Respected Minister of Comm. Was Suggesting Roaming Rental cut from Last 1 year when he had announced 1 India Plan. But No Private Player had made any step Towards this.

I reuqest all Forum Leader / Memeber / to make Comment on Issued which will Benefit to Consumer in General.

We can Send Email Regarding any Consultation Paper.

But the EMail Should be Precise, EMail Should Blame Any body, Email can have some Data from New Paper, but we must Take Data and also Write the Source of Info, PLease Provide Full name, Address, Be Specific in Point, Have Better Compararion in Data of National / International Services.

The Mail can be Sent to

ChaubeMC@Trai.gov.in

[@ksh@T 20]

but as at this time when reliance is increasing the monthly roaming tarriff to rs 49 from rs 25 will it reduce the roaming tarriff ...i doubt so they are busy in shelling the consumers pocket as much as they can and i doubt they wil keep on the local call charges in roaming same in postpaid too which are same as home sdca....

[KumaarShah 143]

I think they will increase the postpaid roaming call rates to what will prevail for GSM. This way all the NJ299,399, Del 399, Del 499, etc plans will fetch them higher revenues. Even incoming calls will be what will prevail for the mobile (GSM) industry.

Let us not rejoice, ADA will surely take this route to arrest the loss of revenue due to roaming rentals not being allowed by TRAI. For Prepaid, this will be a boon as the i/c and o/g rates were increased to abnormal highs.

[GSV13 0]

But howcome is possible

Acc to TRAI Outgoing call charge made to visiting network has ceiling of 1.40 while lifetime prepaid already has local call rate of 2.00

[Arun 795]

TRAI Impact on Roaming: Cell firms may hike local rates

Press Trust of India / New Delhi January 24, 2007

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today criticised the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) order for slashing roaming charges, and said the move could lead to increase in basic tariffs.

Terming Trai's order 'distressing and disappointing', COAI said the sharp reduction in roaming tariffs was "unwarranted", and this could have an adverse financial impact for the industry to the tune of Rs 800-900 crore.

"The micro-management of tariffs for value-added services like roaming would leave service providers with no choice but to review their entire tariff structure in order to maintain the sustainability of their businesses," T V Ramachandran, director general, COAI, said in a statement.

Reacting to the Trai decision, Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel said: "We believe the policy of forbearance of mobile tariffs, which has been followed, has worked extremely well and has enabled market forces and competition to provide the best value to customers.

"We believe that a selective departure from the policy is unnecessary and unwarranted particularly when certain services are currently being offered below cost."

Reliance Communications declined to comment, but sources in the company said the impact of the order would be only to the extent of Rs 18-20 crore.

[kesav 127]

This is pure knee-jerk reaction from COAI.

T V Ramachandran is just trained parrot of Airtel. He never had his own brain working at any point of time.

If the market forces behave properly then government need not interfere. TRAI has even promised forbearance at later stage if market develops competition.

Cartelization should never be allowed to happen. Its clear after Reliance has introduced the roaming rental there's cartelization happeining in this specific case.

If government should not interfere in this critical points then what is the purpose of electing the government....

This is another typical behaviour from Airtel which never bothered about customers' interests and would only be interested in increasing ARPU.

Whatever the new VAS things which have ever been introduced by Airtel has been exorbitant in pricing like caller tunes, background music, push mail etc....

Even after several thousand requests by our dear communication minister, Airtel never bothered to help rural market grow since they know their ARPU will go down.

Only Relinace with Rural FWP and Hutch with huge CUG(around 500 farmers/SDCA(free between these numbers)) has ventured into the rural market.

Certainly Airtel is fit for nothing when it comes to nation building.

Edited January 24, 2007 by kesav

[Breaking News 0]

India's telecoms regulator on Wednesday slashed tariffs for national roaming on mobile networks by up to 56 percent, further reducing already low call rates in the fastest growing mobile market in the world.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said the new tariffs, effective from Feb. 15, would be applicable for the dominant GSM network as well as the CDMA platform.

It fixed a ceiling of 1.40 rupees a minute for outgoing local calls while roaming, 2.40 rupees for outgoing long-distance calls and 1.75 rupees for incoming calls, regardless of the distance.

Subscribers can receive text messages for free, while outgoing messages would still be charged.

Mobile operators will not be allowed to charge a fixed rental fee for roaming or a surcharge on roaming services.

The new charges would cut roaming tariffs by 22 to 56 percent, the TRAI Web site showed.

"While competition in mobile services has reached a satisfactory level, the same is not true for roaming segment of the mobile services," TRAI said.

"The authority would closely monitor market developments on roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it would revisit the issue," a statement said, describing the new tariffs as "simple, transparent and distance neutral."

The regulator had started a consultation on tariffs for national roaming last November.

India has about 147 million mobile users in a nation of more than a billion people, and has been adding about 6 million new users a month, with tariffs as low as 2-3 U.S. cents a minute.

[Honest 836]

Thats a good step taken by TRAI my dear friends. Afterall everyone of us will get relief from Roaming Rentals and high call charges. But at the same time if cellular operators do not increase their basic tariffs for local calls then it will be more beneficial.

Regards.

[Greens 21]

Good step by TRAI and Mr.Maran.

Slowly roaming charges should go completely and charges should be uniform across India.

[srini 1]

CDMA players say impact limited

‘’We have ensured that there will be no negative impact on the operators and so that their expansion plans are not hit,” Mr Mishra said. He also added “Trai would closely monitor market developments on roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it would revisit the issue and even consider forbearing roaming tariffs”.

CDMA players said that the telecom regulatory authority of India directive would have a negligible impact on their subscribers as these operators allowed roaming only within their networks. “The impact will not be more than Rs 20 crore annually,” Reliance Communication sources told ET but added that increased volumes would offset the impact.

Responding to the Trai directive, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing all GSM operators said, the micro management of tariffs for value added services (such as roaming) would force service providers to review their entire tariff structure in order to maintain the sustainability of their businesses.

“The decline in roaming tariffs would most likely necessitate an increase in local call tariffs as roaming tariffs were hitherto being priced at a level which allowed the operators to offer the overall most economically affordable services to their consumers. This would adversely affect the low end and marginal consumers who may now have to pay higher rates for basic local connectivity,” said COAI director-general TV Ramachandran.

Endorsing the same line, India’s leading mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, said: “We believe that the policy of forbearance of mobile tariffs which has been followed has worked extremely well and has enabled market forces and competition to provide the best value to the customers.”

“We therefore believe that a selective departure from policy of forbearance is unnecessary and unwarranted, particularly when certain services are currently being offered below cost,” Airtel said.

[KumaarShah 143]

More bad and good news:

First the bad news:

The COAI members will increase local call charges shortly. This will be a burden to the customers who do not use roaming. They contend that the loss due to the revised roaming charges will be about 900 to 1000 Crores, which they can recover only by increase in local call charges.

Now the good news:

CDMA operators contend that the revision in roaming charges will lead to an 20 Crores erosion in margins annually. This can be recovered by increased subscriber usage.

So based on the above reports, three cheers for CDMA and thumbs down to GSM.

[HetalDP 947]

Lesser the CHarges More the Usage man. Now People will not cut the incoming phone while in Roaming will Increase the Call in Roaming

No Impact to any Player I believe