Trai revises ADC on roaming

Roaming calls within India to be treated as STD/ISD calls

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today said roaming calls made by subscribers within India would be treated STD calls and global roaming calls would be considered incoming international calls for the calculation of access deficit charge (ADC).

Customers on national roaming will have to pay an ADC of 30 paise per minute, equivalent to the deficit charge on STD calls, while a subscriber on international roaming will pay Rs 3.25 per minute.

"For all national roaming calls made from different service areas, ADC charge as applicable for national long distance calls shall be applicable at the rate of 30 paise a minute. For international roaming subscribers, making any call while in India will fetch an ADC of RS 3.25 per minute," the regulator said.

"For all calls from a roaming subscriber, the access deficit amount is to be collected by the visited network operator and paid to BSNL," Trai said.

The regulator has also amended the Telecommunication Interconnection Usage Charges Regulation, 2003, to define national and international roaming.

"Roaming means the ability for a cellular subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, data and to access other services while travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network.

"It is national roaming when visited network and home network of the subscriber are in the same country and it is international roaming when visited network and home network are in different countries."

ADC charges redefined

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• Customers on national roaming will have the pay an ADC of 30 paise per minute
• Subscribers on international roaming will pay Rs 3.25 per minute
• For all calls from a roaming subscriber, the access deficit amount is to be collected by the visited network operator and paid to BSNL
• Trai has defined roaming as the ability for a cellular subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, data and to access other services while travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network