NEW DELHI, India—The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has slashed airtime tariffs on roaming for cellular phones by 70 percent and has fixed a ceiling of 3 rupees (US$0.06) per minute for roaming. At present, the ceiling on roaming charges is 10 rupees (US$0.21) per minute.
“While airtime rates in the subscriber home network have been declining over time, airtime rate charges for roaming have generally remained stable,” TRAI said in a notification.
The new tariff will be implemented from 1 March. The regulator has also fixed a ceiling of 100 rupees (US$2.06) per month for monthly access charges for roaming. Most operators are currently charging between 100 rupees and 400 rupees (US$8.25) as a monthly access charges.
Operators said roaming charges contribute about 4 percent of the total revenue of a cellular company.
