TRAI reduces ceiling tariffs for national roaming; lower call rates effective from May 1

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday cut ceiling tariffs for national roaming calls and text messages and mandated operators to bring the changes into effect from May 1, 2015. It also asked carriers to offer a special roaming tariff plan.

TRAI has set the ceiling for outgoing local calls at 80 paise minute from Re 1 a minute while it reduced the calling rate to Rs 1.15 per minute from Rs 1.5 a minute for STD calls.

Incoming calls on roaming will be charged at most 45 paise per minute, down from 75 paise charged earlier, while a maximum of 25 paise per will be charged for a local SMS sent compared to Rs 1 charged before, and to 38 paise per for STD SMS sent, down from Rs 1.50.