No roaming charges likely from next year

No roaming charges likely from next year

NEW DELHI: The communications ministry will do away with roaming charges paid by mobile users when travelling within India from 2013, telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar told ET, even as he added that it would not be possible to specify the exact month of execution.

The finance ministry asked the telecom department to submit the road map for implementation of the 'one nation-free roaming' that was announced by communications minister Kapil Sibal earlier this year. In May, the Union Cabinet had approved the National Telecom Policy - 2012 that aimed at doing away with roaming charges and introducing a pan-India mobile permit (unified licence) that would enable mobile phone firms to offer all communication services.

"Our first priority is the upcoming spectrum auctions. At the same time, we are working on the Unified Licence (UL) and we want to finalise this by December. Once the UL regime is rolled out post December, concepts like 'One nation-free roaming' that is part of it will be introduced. This will happen sometime next year (2013). At this stage it will be impossible to specify the exact timeframe," Chandrasekhar said.

This consumer-centric move, which is bound to bring down the mobile bills of frequent travellers, will dent revenues of India's beleaguered telecom companies since roaming charges account for about 10% of the sector's annual sales.

US judge rejects call to ban YouTube anti-Muslim film

US judge rejects call to ban YouTube anti-Muslim film

A US judge rejected Thursday a request by an actress in the anti-Islamic video that set off violent Muslim protests to ban YouTube from showing the trailer in the United States. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Louis Lavin refused the request by lawyers for actress Cindy Lee Garcia for a 

restraining order to prevent the online video-sharing service from continuing to show the trailer.

Garcia is one of three actresses in the film to have come forward with similar accusations since the explosion of violence that ripped through Muslim countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia last week.

She sued YouTube and its owner Google for releasing excerpts of the very amateurish film, which was later dubbed into Arabic and made to show Mohammed as a thuggish womanizer.YouTube said Wednesdayit extended its restrictions on the video to "countries where it is considered illegal by local authorities; that is, to date, India, Indonesia. Malaysia and Saudi Arabia."

YouTube last week restricted access to the film in Egypt and Libya after unrest in those countries, and has been adding countries to the list. Some others including Pakistan and Sudan, have blocked access themselves.

The US actress also filed a lawsuit against the reported producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, on grounds of invasion of privacy, fraud, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster -- out on parole -- lives in Los Angeles and has admitted to working on the film, "Innocence of Muslims."

US media say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. He was questioned overnight Friday by police before going into hiding with his family.