Mobile phone subscribers will not have to pay any roaming charges throughout the country from next year.
On reply to the question, from when the roaming charges will be removed as proposed in the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said, "From next year. Our secretary has told you that it will be free from next year".
NTP 2012 will remove roaming charges so that mobile phone users can use the same number across the country. At present users have to pay extra charges while they are on roaming but once this gets implemented roaming will be free outside their telecom circle.
NTP 2012 was approved in May and Finance Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to submit a roadmap and timeline for the same.
DoT Secretary R Chandrashekhar said, "The process for free roaming across the country has already been started.
The department is currently working on the unified licence (UL) guidelines. After the finalization of UL and the auction process gets over, the 'one nation-free roaming' will also be implemented in due time.
"All these things are inter-related. We have initiated the process and its implementation is likely next year," Chandrashekhar added.
Also a full mobile number portability, which will allow users to retain their existing number at the time of changing their service providers across any state in the country will also be implemented.
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