BSNL against ceiling tarrifs on roaming services

New Delhi, Jan 1: State-run telecom major BSNL is in favour that there is no need to prescribe any other ceiling tariff for national roaming services and it should be left to market forces.

It has also said the SMS while roaming involves signaling network and the expense on clearing house service, both the SMS can be treated differently.

''TRAI has kept forbearance in mobile tariff keeping in mind that there is enough competition in the mobile service segment. There is a competition in the mobile service as a whole and also in the roaming charge component of the tariff as the roaming charges vary from Rs 1.50 to Rs 3 per minute, the PSU added.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had sought views from stakeholders on fixing separate usage-based composite ceiling on tariffs for national roaming services in respect of outgoing local and inter-circle calls and for incoming calls.

Similarly, Bharti Airtel has said the customer tariffs are already lowest in the world and consistently coming down, which clearly indicates that the Indian telecom market is mature and guided by the market forces.

On crucial financial parameters, the Indian telecom sector is lagging behind in comparison to emerging telecom markets whereas the huge investment is required in the coming years.

''The regulatory body should not fix a usage-based composite ceiling tariffs for national roaming services. However, we feel that the ceiling tariff on roaming air time charges can be reduced further to bring in greater affordability to subscribers, but the existing ceiling rental can be retained,'' Reliance Communications Ltd said in a statement.

The ceiling charges for roaming air time should be reduced to Rs 0.75 per minute, it added.

For an outgoing call, GSM operators's tariff varies from Rs 2.89 to Rs 3.99 per minute while the CDMA operator's roaming charges for local outgoing calls range from Re 1 to Rs 3.99. Charges for an incoming call while roaming vary from Rs 3.09 to Rs 3.99 per minute among the private GSM operators while CDMA operators' incoming roaming tariff ranges from Rs 1.00 to Rs 3.99.

UNI