Question : ONE NATION FREE ROAMING

(a) whether `One Nation-Free Roaming` has been one of the objectives of National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 and the same was proposed to be implemented by October 2013;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons for not implementing free National roaming so far;

(c) whether the Government has implemented or proposes to implement the `One Nation-Free Roaming` in some telecom circles by merging the circles;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the time by which the Government proposes to make the national roaming free across the country as being one of the main objective of NTP 2012?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) to (b) Yes, Madam, “One Nation – Free Roaming” is one of the objectives of National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012. Being a predominantly tariff related issue, TRAI floated a consultation paper on ‘Review of Tariff for National Roaming’ on 25.02.2013. As per the comments received from the stakeholders, majority of the stakeholders were not in favour of Home Price Rule (HPR) in the national roaming service. Stakeholders were strongly averse to a regime in which incoming calls while on national roaming would become free.

After analyzing the comments received from the stakeholders, a view was taken by TRAI that fully free national roaming across all the tariff schemes is not practicable due to the following reasons:

# Tariff regime of ‘home equal to roam’ for outgoing voice calls and SMS may result in cross subsidization of roaming subscribers at the expense of non-roaming subscribers, as a result of which the home tariff may increase.

# Tariff regime of free incoming voice call while on national roaming may create serious distortions in the telecom market. Such a regime would create arbitrage opportunity that could lead to SIM movement behavior across the circles.

(c) to (e) The Government does not propose to implement the “One Nation-Free Roaming” in some telecom circles by merging the circles.

Through Telecommunication Tariff (55th Amendment) Order, 2013 dated 17.6.2013, TRAI brought about the following changes in the tariff regime for national roaming service:

# reduced the ceiling tariffs for national roaming service,

# permitted Special Tariff Vouchers (STVs) and Combo Vouchers for roaming tariffs to provide flexibility and convenience to the consumers and

# mandated the wireless access service providers to offer special roaming tariff plans (RTP and RTP-FR) in which the subscribers can avail partially free roaming, or fully free roaming in lieu of payment of fixed charges, by subscribing to RTP and RTP-FR respectively.

Subsequently, through the Telecommunication Tariff (60th Amendment) Order, 2015 dated 09.04.2015, TRAI has made the following changes in the tariff regime for national roaming, which will come into effect from 01.05.2015.

# reduced the ceilings tariff for voice calls and SMS while on national roaming. The table given below presents the reduction in tariff for national roaming service announced by TRAI:

 Item	Ceiling tariff as	Ceiling tariff as	Percentage	per TTO(55th	per TTO(60th	reduction	Amendment), 2013	Amendment), 2015 Outgoing local voice call	Re.1.00 per minute	Re.0.80 per minute	20% Outgoing long distance (inter-circle) voice call	Re.1.50 per minute	Re.1.15 per minute	23% Incoming voice call	Re.0.75 per minute	Re.0.45 per minute	40% Outgoing local SMS	Rs.1.00 per SMS	Rs.0.25 per SMS	75% Outgoing long distance	Re.1.50 per SMS	Re.0.38 per SMS	75% (inter circle) SMS