Ambani-owned telco Reliance Jio (RJIO) has signed an Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) deal with the Government-owned telco body BSNL, the company confirmed to MediaNama. According to an ET report, the ICR deal will be applicable across 22 circles; BSNL will be charging 25 paise per minute for voice roaming, 25 paise per megabyte for data and 5 paise per SMS under the ICR deal. Once the technical ICR arrangements are completed between RJIO and BSNL, Jio users will be able to use BSNL’s network while roaming within their designated circle. Therefore, RJIO will have to share the above-mentioned rates with BSNL, for every roaming call, SMS, or data utilized on BSNL’s network. The report added that BSNL is expecting to generate Rs 300-400 crore a year through more ICR deals from the next financial year. More ICR deals from BSNL: In August 2015, Bharti Airtel was in talks with BSNL for sharing spectrum through an ICR arrangement. Other operators including Vodafone and Idea Cellular were also expected to line up to get a deal with the BSNL. Similarly, in this month, Bharti Airtel was reportedly in talks with BSNL again for finalizing a spectrum sharing deal in four circles including Rajasthan, UP (West), Bihar and Assam. In January, BSNL was also reportedly in final stages to complete another ICR deal with Aircel. RCOM & RJIO spectrum sharing deal: In January, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Reliance Jio entered into a strategic partnership to share spectrum to provide LTE services. RCOM and RJIO have signed…
