India - BSNL allows roaming with pvt operators

NEW DELHI: Mobile subscribers are likely to enjoy seamless connectivity throughout the country soon, as state-run BSNL has decided to share its network with private telcos for roaming agreements. In a Management Committee meeting recently, the PSU approved a proposal in this regard. "The MoU in this regard may be signed with the seeking operators initially for six months only on non-exclusive and experimental basis," a BSNL internal circular of the Management Committee meeting said. BSNL will sign the first roaming agreement with new telecom operator Swan Telecom, the circular said. The committee has decided to levy roaming charge of 52 paise a minute per outgoing call. "The Management Committee, after detailed discussion, has decided that roaming charge of 52 paise per outgoing call may be offered for the intra-circle roaming service seeking operators," it said, adding BSNL would review the charge after initial six months and it could be revised up or downward based on prevailing conditions and volume of business. The committee said only the idle capacity of the network will be used to earn extra revenue. The incremental additional cost of the upgradation of equipment to provide roaming will be borne by the seeker operators. With this, subscribers of private operators will finally be able to roam on BSNLs nation-wide network. While all private telcos have roaming agreements with each other, BSNL, till date, has not opened up its networks for roaming deals.