Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said that mobile phone subscribers would be freed from paying roaming charges from the next year. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi today, the Minister said, there would be no roaming charges from the coming year.

Our Correspondent reports, the National Telecom Policy, 2012 (NTP 2012), approved in May, aims to abolish roaming charges and allow mobile phone subscribers to use same number across the country without having to pay extra charges for services once they are outside their telecom circle.

Meanwhile, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is working on Notice Inviting Applications for spectrum auction after which it will work on Unified license (UL) guidelines – also a part of the NTP 2012. He said, all issues linked to auction will be primarily addressed and after the NIA is issued this week, the focus will be on unified licence.

Mr. Chandrashekar said, after details of full unified licence is worked out, the modalities for free roaming will follow. As per the schedule, NIA will be issued on the 28th of this month.