Saturday, May 21 2005 13:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a major benefit to consumers in four States, Government today (May 21, 2005) made calls between Chennai and Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and West Bengal, Mumbai and Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West) local.

Till now, calls between the three metro cities and their respective States and the two parts of UP were long distance (STD) ones and the consumers had to pay for roaming.

Under the new facility, announced by Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran, calls from mobile-to-mobile and fixed-to-mobile will now become local.

Under the new scheme, there would be no roaming charges between Mumbai and Maharashtra, Chennai and Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and West Bengal, UP (East) and UP (West).

These changes would be effective from May 25, 2005 Maran said adding even the private operators have assured the Government of their support in this regard.

"However, the access providers will operate within their existing licensed service areas and shall not be permitted to create infrastructure outside their areas for the purpose of inter-service area connectivity," he said.

"They will, however, be allowed to lease lines for such connectivity. The inter-service area connectivity will only be for terminating traffic," Maran added.

Mobile customers in these circles would be benefited, which would lead to further growth of services in these areas, he said.

Today's announcement addresses the differences between the circles.

Initially, the mobile service licences were given in four metros of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata and later granted in telecom circles. Thus, there are separate mobile service licences for Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai and other parts of the respective States.

In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the telecom circle was bifurcated in December 1994 for better development an administration of telecom services.