MTNL, BSNL to soon announce free roaming plans

BSNL customers may have to pay Re 1 a day to avail free roaming.

 

State-run telecom operators MTNL and BSNL will reportedly soon announce new roaming plans for its customers. While MTNL plans to launch free roaming with no additional charges in Delhi and Mumbai circles, BSNL is likely to charge Re 1 per day for the free roaming facility. The new schemes are expected to be available from January 26.

According to reports, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal will formally announce the new schemes this week. "Minister (Sibal) had asked the PSUs in November to come up with free roaming scheme. Though MTNL made it free, BSNL will levy charge so that it can bear cost. Customers availing scheme will enjoy local tariff wherever they travel,” Economic Times quotes an official source as saying.

Free roaming is one of the key elements of the National Telecom Policy 2012. Citing burden of huge costs, telecom operators have been reluctant to implement full-fledged free roaming.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) last year slashed ceilings on national roaming tariff and allowed telecom operators to provide free nationwide roaming to subscribers through Special Tariff Vouchers and combo packs.

Later, operators including Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel did launch a few low-cost roaming plans.