New Year gift: MTNL to offer free roaming from January 1

State-run MTNL, which offers services in Delhi and Mumbai, will offer free roaming from January 1, allowing its customers to receive calls at no extra cost while travelling across the country.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday announced the free roaming facility by MTNL from next year during an event to celebrate good governance day. BSNL already has free roaming scheme in place.

At present, MTNL customers have to pay roaming charges for incoming calls when they go outside of Delhi and Mumbai.

MTNL Chairman and Managing Director N K Yadav said the company is even trying to implement the scheme before January 1 and is checking the technical details. "We will try to start the scheme from today night or tomorrow," Yadav said.

The government under National Telecom Policy 2012 has set a goal to achieve free roaming gradually.