New Policy To Resolve '3G Roaming' Controversy

A telecoms ministry official 'New policy will settle 3G roaming controversy' - The Economic Times that a new policy will be actuated next year, which will settle the controversy regarding 3G roaming agreements that mobile phone organisations have signed among themselves. This new policy will bring in something called the pan-India mobile permit, thus eliminating the current system of possessing 22-individual region-specific permits. If this policy comes into practice, the concept of roaming will stand invalid, offering better and cheaper services to the consumers.#-Link-Snipped-#

Past week, the law ministry backed views invoked by many sections of the telecom department and the #-Link-Snipped-#, which stated that the 3G roaming deals among mobile companies have treated licence rules irreverently. With the department keen to remove this 3G roaming barrier, the GSM operators ruling the roost - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone andIdea Cellular - have asked the Prime Minister to look into this matter, as this could cut down a huge revenue for them.

Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal, Idea Cellular Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao even submitted a letter to the Honorable Prime Minister in which they sought a ban on this new policy, or a complete refund of the amount they expended for the airwaves.