Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) are working jointly to offer free roaming service to customers. They also signed a pact on Tuesday to share their infrastructure and provide joint services to corporate customers.
Currently, MTNL and BSNL do not impose roaming charges for mobile internet services on each others customers. MTNL CMD A K Garg said that both telcos are working on a similar arrangement for calls.
?In the NCR (National Capital Region), expect for Delhi, where BSNL customers are on roaming, he is not charged for roaming. We would like to enlarge that area individually on pan-India basis so that a mobile customer does not pay any fees for roaming,? said RK Upadhayay, chairman and managing director, BSNL.
In March, telecom minister Kapil Sibal had said that the government is trying to start free national roaming by year-end. On June 17, telecom regulator Trai announced that mobile operators can allow free national roaming if users pay a fixed fee. Private service provider Airtel allows free incoming calls on roaming at a charge of R5 per day. Under the pact signed on Tuesday, the two telecom firms will share infrastructure like buildings, mobile masts and international long-distance phone networks, the companies said in a joint statement.
