Roaming mobile call rates reduced

Cut in tariff to mainly benefit those who travel out of their circle often

GN Bureau | April 9, 2015


#roaming   #telecom   #tariff   #Bharati Airtel   #Idea Cellular   #Trai   #TRAI  

Roaming mobile bills are set to fall in India. The telecom regulator has cut the ceiling tariff for national roaming services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has ordered that outgoing local calls be capped at Rs 0.80 per minute and outgoing inter-circle calls at Rs. 1.15 per minute. The current ceiling or the maximum charge on national roaming is Rs1 per minute for outgoing local calls.

This will benefit frequent travellers who complain about hefty roaming mobile bills.

Meanwhile, shares of telecom operators like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular slumped after the Trai announcement as this move is likely to impact revenues of these mobile operators. Bharti Airtel fell over 3 per cent to an intraday low of Rs 405.50, while Idea Cellular shares slumped as much as 3.2 per cent to Rs 186.30.

Item Proposed ceiling tariff
Outgoing Local voice call while on national roaming Re. 0.80 per minute
Outgoing long distance (inter-circle) voice call while on national roaming Re. 1.15 per minute
Incoming voice call while on national roaming Re. 0.45 per minute
Outgoing local Short Message Services (SMS) while on national roaming Re. 0.25 per SMS
Outgoing long distance (inter-circle) Short Message Services (SMS) while on national roaming Re.0.38 per SMS

The telecom regulator has also started review of accounting reporting system of operators on concerns over products and network licences, among others, raised by the industry.

The Accounting Separation Regulations, 2012, are intended to collect such financial data from telecom operators that would enable a meaningful analysis of the financial performance of different telecom products and services, costs, returns and capital employed.

The review also seeks data to identify cross subsidisation, investigate predatory pricing and understand telecom operators pricing and arrangement. It said telecom operators have raised concerns including those related to products and network elements under various telecom licensed services, financial and non-financial performance and periodicity of submission of reports.

Telecom operators have also expressed concerns on requirements relating to adoption of accounting separation reports by company's board and audit. The regulator has invited views of people interested in the subject by April 22.

Comments

 

Other News

Enhanced MCA21 V3 Portal Paves the Way for Improved Corporate Governance

By Sudhir Chaturvedi, Executive Board Member & President- Markets, LTIMindtree Corporate governance has always been a critical issue for businesses in India. As part of its ongoing digitalization drive, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) recently launched the latest

“I pray to God that such an incident never happens in future”

Life is slowly limping back to normalcy in Bahanaga, a block headquarters town in Odisha’s Balasore district that witnessed one of the deadliest rail disasters of the century. Train operations have resumed as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun the probe into the accident that claimed

Gandhi’s Triumph over the Fear of Death

The Essential U. R. Ananthamurthy Edited by N. Manu Chakravarthy and Chandan Gowda Aleph Books, Rs 899, 312 pages

Bird walks for youngsters to be held across India

Early Bird and the Rainmatter Foundation have announced five bird walks, led by naturalists, across India on June 10. The walks, to be held in Agartala, Dehradun, Mysore, Panjim, and Tirupati early in the morning, are part of the Rainmatter Foundation’s Walking Lightly campaign, being observed throug

India celebrates Environment Day with thrust on Mission LiFE

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India organized the World Environment Day on Monday with a thrust on Mission LiFE. The concept of LiFE, i.e., Lifestyle for Environment was introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi at the World Leaders` Summit in Glasgow at COP26, when

Green banking: an emerging way forward

Green Banking is an initiative taken by the banks to promote environment-friendly practices and reduce carbon footprint of their activities. Green financing (a part of ‘Green Banking’) is a broad term that can refer to a financial investment flowing into sustainable development projects and ini

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter