Roaming in India may become the talks of past times as DoT is planning to spare roaming services in India, A high-level Department of Telecom (DoT) panel that was asked to come up with strategic changes for the communications industry has recommended that the country be considered as a single region, a move that will spare customers from paying a roaming fee when traveling.
At present, the country is divided into 22 circles and consumers pay roaming charges when they make or receive calls outside their home circle. This DoT panel has recommended that doing away with the circle concept will help deal with the roaming issues.
According to the panel, if the entire country could not be considered as a single circle, then the country can be divided into four regions. In this case, it will help consumers avoid roaming charges when traveling within a region like say all the Southern states.
Mobile phone companies will oppose any moves to do away with roaming charges as this fee forms up to 10% of the industry’s revenues. All telcos combined together about US$272.4 million annually from roaming charges.
A per the existing rules, a mobile phone company can charge a maximum of US$0.03 per minute for a local call for a mobile user traveling outside his home network, while for STD calls, the limit is US$0.05 per minute for all outgoing and US$0.04 per minute for all incoming calls while on roaming, irrespective of the distance. But, existing rates are far lower than these caps imposed by TRAI in 2007. The tariff wars that gripped the sector in 2009 had also resulted in some operators slashing their roaming tariffs.
The panel has also found that cellular operators be allowed to offer financial services on mobile phones , while adding that the move would speed up the government’s efforts to ensure that the weaker sections of the society have access to such facilities at affordable costs.
As per the panel, the DoT must soon come up with a policy for renewal of telecom licenses. The panel has also called for a national policy on setting up telecom towers. According to the officials, the policy, which will be framed by TRAI, will apply to cell-sites or telecom towers in all cities and will address issues such as the minimum distance these units must maintain from schools, hospitals and tourist attractions. It will also specify the maximum radiation levels for these masts and state methodologies that will be used to measure it. This will also mark the first attempt in India to regulate the telecoms towers space in the country.
Telecom operator Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong (HTHK) has entered into a strategic partnership with Vodafone in an attempt to increase its customer base as well as offer improved services to its business clients. According to company reports, under the agreement, HTHK will be able to sell to its multinational customers, a range of managed communications services provided by Vodafone Global Enterprise, the business within Vodafone that manages the communications needs of multinational companies.