Telecom regulators from all South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) countries will meet next week to discuss plans to lower roaming rates in the region.
The regulators will meet in Delhi next week, and will also consider methods of more directly interconnecting their respective national networks, according to The Indian Economic Times.
While SAARC regulators do not have the power to enforce lower roaming rates, they instead plan to act as facilitators between operators.
SAARC regulators, led by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have been pushing for lower roaming rates for some time.
TRAI placed a ceiling on the roaming rates Indian operators could charge in January last year, and began arguing for lowered rates throughout the region last July.
In November, TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra told Voice&Data that “the main objective of cooperation among the operators is to bring down the international call tariffs.”
Mobile users who roam in SAARC countries often pay more to call home than it would cost from the US or Europe.
The SAARC region consists of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.
Source:telecomasia.net