Telecom company sources have said that they may stop roaming charges if the government accepts the report submitted by a high-level panel. The panel constituted by the Department of Telecom (DoT) has recommended to the government to consider the entire country as a single service area or four separate zones instead of the existing 22 telecom circles.
The team said in its report, "There should be an option to merge certain service areas." If the government accepts this recommendation, mobile users need not have to pay any extra money while travelling outside their home network. Carriers charge a higher rate for roaming and there are no uniform roaming charges as they differ from one operator to another."
As the next step, the DoT may ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to work out the modalities to implement this recommendation. As per rules, a mobile service provider can charge a maximum of Rs 1.40 per minute for a local call for a mobile user travelling outside his home network, while for STD calls, the limit is Rs 2.40 per minute for all outgoing and Rs 1.75 per minute for all incoming calls, irrespective of the distance. After the tariff war began in 2009, several companies have reduced their roaming charges.
However, industry experts feel that mobile companies may not accept this recommendation easily as removing roaming charges may result in losing revenue.
