India's Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said thatmobile phone subscribers will not have to pay roaming charges from next year.
"From next year our secretary has told you that it willbe free from next year," Sibal said here in response to a query on thetiming of removing roaming charges as proposed in the National Telecom Policy2012.
The Minister was speaking to the media on the sidelines ofthe curtain raiser event of India Internet Governance Conference.
NTP 2012, approved in May, aims to abolish roaming chargesand allow mobile phone subscribers to use same number across country withouthaving to pay extra charges for services once they are outside their telecomcircle.
Meanwhile, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said theDepartment of Telecom (DoT) is working on Notice Inviting Applications (NIA)for spectrum auction after which it will work on unified licence (UL)guidelines - also a part of the NTP 2012.
"We are first going to attend to all issues linked toauction. The moment NIA is issued this week, we will focus on UL. After detailsof full UL is worked out, the modalities for free roaming will follow," hesaid.
As per the schedule, NIA will be issued on September 28.
