Nationwide Roaming - Make it Free!
Its almost Thursday. In India, its already Thursday. 
Another week goes by. One week from today it will be D-Day for us, the dreaded visa interview. 
It will be fine, and we shall pass with flying colours.
Cell phone roaming. Don’t you think this is an issue in India? The country that has more hi-tech phones than USA but still a not very good nationwide roaming system. 
Why is that? Don’t tell me that Indians don’t travel? I think its been just recently that the US has done something abt. their nationwide roaming issue. My current contract, that will end in September of this year, doesn’t have nationwide roaming, but I am able to use it in all the states that border my own state of Illinois. That’s cool. 
I have been looking at the newer cell phone deals an now all of the carriers offer nationwide roaming @ no additional cost. I definitely think that’s the way to go. Hopefully soon we will get to a day when we will have international roamin @ no additional cost.
India needs to get on the ball with their nationwide roaming as they are even a smaller country than USA. Just this week when Neeraj went to activate roaming on his cell, his carrier Airtel told him that it would two additional days to activate and it will cost him 4 rupees per minute incoming and outgoing. 
That’s a ripoff if I have ever seen one. 
Right now when I roam outside of my zone, it will cost me 60 cents per minute, still not as bad as 4 rupees per minute.
Its an issue that I hope that some carrier will take the initiative to resolve in India. US is quite behind in the cell phone industry when it comes to getting Bluetooth and utilizing cutting edge wireless technology, but they did pick up the ball with the roaming issue, now India, aap bhi aa jaao maidaan main.
Alvida. Jai Mata Di.
July 13th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
I agree…India badly needs to get free nationawide roaming in cell phones. Especially now that cell phones have become so famous in India that every person carries one, it is much needed. People travel a lot in India…and this facility would ve widely accepted. Paying extra Rs 4/min for incoming & outgoing calls is a big rip off.
US started slow on the Bluetooth technology, but I think the country has now picked up the pace with almost all the cell phone carriers offering this facility in the new phones and the auto industry adding this feature in the cars. It’s really coming big now & I simply love this bluetooth technology!
July 14th, 2005 at 12:52 am
Yeah.. exactly.. just yes’day i had to go to Amritsar… and hutch charged me 25 bucks for roaming activation.. and then 4 bucks for each call… !! That’s ridiculous…!!
But, somewhere i read that TRAI (telecom regulatory authority of india) is right now considering a proposal of india one plan where roaming throughout india will become free…. but the problem is all the operators are opposing it.. and this proposal isn’t getting any kind of media attention as of now!!
July 14th, 2005 at 1:32 am
Talking about roaming, it makes me mad
The cost is even more expensive than I send the message. They should really change this roaming rules ….
When I did a lot of travelling for work, I did pay a lot just for receiving calls when I was out of Indonesia. Don’t say about calls, even the sms message, I need to pay when I received it, unbelieveable
July 14th, 2005 at 1:34 am
I too had the same problem with roaming, last time when I was in India.
And it su***. Being one country, they should allow nationwide roaming. May be soon some company will start with it. Others will definately follow that. ;)
July 14th, 2005 at 6:36 am
Yep, I agree with everyone on roaming, but here in Finland there is no roaming charge,anywhere in country same tariff. Now Finland is not as big as USA or India but still not as small as other European nations.
They were talking about One India tariff, having same local and STD charge, probably when it is done we will have no roaming charges in India. :)
July 14th, 2005 at 7:08 am
nice discussion.. As Manpreet says, if this gets some media attention, then there’ll be some improvement. otherwise, things will move only at snails pace here..
Even sending sms outside Bangalore costs so much here… its 2Rs per sms for me outside Karnataka..
July 14th, 2005 at 9:48 am
I hope it gets to the media Manpreet.
They really do need to take care of this issue. Yup the issue that you faced was the same as Neeraj, so did u end up doing the roaming in Amritsar?
So the problem exists there as well Mona?
I don’t know if I am surprised or not. 
It seems like its an issue that our Asian counterparts haven’t been able to tackle yet. I hope it gets better in Indonesia as well. 
Yup you are right Govind.
Now a question for you Satya, are you able to roam within the European Union?
I think that would be great for you all in Europe because its so easy to go from country to country there. Europe has really done well with their telecom industry. They have new phones and the new technology. The perfect combination. 
The good thing for you in India Prasad is that you get your incoming SMS free. My incoming SMS costs me!:irked: I don’t know why they do that. But yes, 2 Rs for one SMS is a ripoff as well.
July 14th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
Nationwide romaing activation is free on Reliance, and incoming calls are only 1.90 Rupees a minute. I didnt get ripped off so much while roaming at Rishikesh-Haridwar-Musoorie. But thats only for Reliance, the GSM players really mint money on roaming charges, totally agree with you, TRAI needs to regulate a lot.
July 14th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
Hmm.. all the best for the interview
July 14th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
nice dicussion.. true India have the latest mobile technology and ppl have better and latest cell fones than in US.. National roaming in India is a must and should be free in India .. the technology is better there .. its just that Players are not ready to Invest as to make National Roaming free they have to have a network which covers the whole nation.. or they have to colaborate with others .. which they currently do.. but that dont covers the whole area..Moreover the amount they charge is hefty.. no of users are increasing on daily basis they should come up with some monthly plans or contracts with which they can have their customers for soem period.. so that in long run they can profit from it…
Waise Poonam… you 60cents a min which if we calculate converting to Indian Rupees $1=Rs43 is Rs 26 per min(7 times they charge in India).. ;) which is way more costly :D
July 14th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Thanks Urvish, we need it.
First mistake of a FOB Manish, conversion:!:
You can’t convert everything from dollars to rupees for the fact being that 60 cents is still quite affordable than 26 rupees per min. So conversion ko ghar chod ke aao. 
July 14th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
theek hai ji chod di ghar ..waise u did that ;).. u compared 60 cents to 4 rs ;).. u cannot compare 2 currencies.. if u do that then u have to consider average earing of a human being in bot h the countries :D and thats big economis…. main to bas tumhari comparison par keh raha tha ;)
July 14th, 2005 at 9:17 pm
July 14th, 2005 at 9:29 pm
:) main to aapka point of view clearly samajh gaya tha … i think i potrayed it wrong… it was on thelighter side :) shayad jaada smileys use karne chahiye they :D….and i know very well that its very hard for average indian to shell out Rs4 for a fone call when he has a lot of other things to work on .. as compared to average main living in herer..
July 14th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
July 15th, 2005 at 4:14 am
Hey..all the best for the interview…i know both of u will clear all ur hurdles :yes:…just be prepared with pastries, chocolates , ice creams etc…..to celebrate it with us:lol:
July 15th, 2005 at 11:44 pm