Airtel announces death of national roaming from April 1

Starting April 1, 2017, Airtel customers roaming within India will enjoy free incoming calls/SMS and there will be no premium on outgoing calls allowing them to speak freely wherever they are within the country. 

Also, there will be no additional data charges on national roaming. Home data packs for customers will apply even while they roam across India.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, “This marks the death of national roaming and the whole country will now be like a local network for our customers, who will not have to think twice before making or receiving calls or using data while traveling outside their home base.”

Airtel has already launched innovative and affordable international roaming packs for all major countries across the world. These packs come with convenient validity options of 1 day, 10 days, and 30 days and offer loads of benefits including free incoming calls/SMS, calling minutes and texts both to India and the local country as well as generous dollops of data to stay online. 

Starting April 1, 2017, even customers on international roaming without a pack will be fully protected from bill shocks through an automatic adjustment that is equal to the daily pack for that particular country. This means that the moment a customer’s billing reaches the price of a one day pack for the country, he/she will be automatically moved to that pack. This will allow our customers to use their devices abroad without any fear. 

Here is an example of how Airtel’s new international roaming pricing works. When a customer traveling to the USA without a pack hits the threshold of Rs 649 (the price of the one day pack for USA), he/she will automatically move to the one day pack with free incoming calls/SMS, 100 India and local country outgoing minutes, 300 MB data and a host of other benefits. Similarly, a customer traveling to Singapore will move to the one day pack the moment his/her usage hits the Rs 499 mark.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Airtel said, "At Airtel, we are changing the international roaming paradigm, which will allow our customers to take their number to every corner of the world. As an industry, operators across the world must collaborate to remove the cost barrier to roaming and offer customers the convenience of staying connected without the fear of exorbitant bill charges."