[nairrk]

If the telecom minister Kapil Sibal’s words are to be believed, roaming charges would be abolished in October 2013. National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 provides for free roaming. Without giving any precise date, Sibal at a function in Chandigarh said that it would be in place by October 2013.

In May 21012 the government gave it nod to the new telecom policy which along with relaxing merger and acquisition norms to encourage consolidation and giving more teeth to sector regulator and de-link spectrum from licences also provides for abolition of roaming charges and allows users to retain the same number across the country.

Under one-nation-one-number cleared by the cabinet, the government plans to remove roaming fees, allowing users to retain their numbers even if they move from one circle or zone to another. The operators however opposed it.

According to experts abolition of roaming charges as proposed in the National Telecom Policy is expected to result in a revenue loss of about USD 400 million for leading telecom service providers. The Indian roaming market is estimated to be around USD 600 million (roaming charges plus call tariffs.

Sometime back Gartner Research Director Kamlesh Bhatia had said that operators having a major market share will tend to lose revenue.

"Ambiguity has now shifted from vision to execution. We will have what mechanism is adopted by the final policy to compensate telecom operators," Bhatia said.

Last week the regulator TRAI has sought views on review of tariff for national roaming from the stakeholders in view of the changes in regimes governing some of the cost components which formed part of the national roaming charges, the Authority decided to conduct a comprehensive review.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper which analyzes the pros and cons of different approaches to the regulation of tariffs for national roaming.

“The possibility of mandating free national roaming as envisaged in National Telecom Policy, 2012 has been deliberated in the Consultation Paper with a detailed impact analysis”, it said.

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