Roaming tariffs under Trai scrutiny

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will consult all stakeholders on roaming tariffs tomorrow even as some anaylsts feel operators having a pan-India presence should not charge customers for such services.

"There should not be any roaming charges when the subscriber is within the same network," says an analyst.

Trai will be holding an open house discussion here tomorrow with all the stakeholders, including national operators and other regional players, on "Review of Ceiling Tariffs for Roaming Services."

Besides roaming charges, industry watchers feel that Trai must intervene to ensure that monthly rentals and call tariffs charged by operators were cost-based. According to estimates available for capital expenditure incurred by operators for each subscriber, the cost-based rental works out to Rs 61.25 as against the high rentals charged by players under the garb of different tariff packages and forbearance allowed by Trai.

Even after the OneIndia plan, under which call tariffs are Re 1 per minute throughout the country, the monthly rental has worked out to be Rs 70 while operators were charging more than double of this. "Trai must ensure that operators do not fleece users by way of offering different tariff plans," sources said.