Reliance Infocomm on Thursday announced nationwide roaming for all Reliance IndiaMobile (RIM) customers at no extra charge.

The company said its customers can now carry their phones across the pan India Reliance network and make calls at the home tariff plan rate for which they have subscribed, while retaining their home mobile number.

The rates applicable for all out going calls while roaming will be same as that in the customers' home tariff plan, the company said in a release on Thursday.

For receiving incoming calls while roaming outside their home circle, customers will have to pay only the tariff rates that are currently applicable for a long distance call from RIM phones to CDMA mobile phones, the release said.

For example, a Kolkata based customer with Budget 149 tariff plan needs to pay only Rs 1.99/minute to receive any call from anywhere while roaming in Chennai as opposed to Rs 6.44/minute charged by most mobile service providers, it said.

With the introduction of roaming, RIM customers, just like customers of other mobile service providers, will not have to pay incoming charges for receiving calls while traveling within the home circle, the release added.

"We are moving away from the concept of airtime charge plus surcharge for roaming, which mobile customers have been compelled to pay for the last several years by other mobile service providers. This provides a saving of up to 70% for a RIM customer over customers of other mobile service providers," said SP Shukla, president - wireless products and services, Reliance Infocomm.

"Other advantages for RIM customers include SMS and voice mail access at home tariff rates while traveling outside their circle. We believe the true value of mobile phones comes into play only when customers can use their mobile phones anywhere in the country without having to worry about the high tariffs outside their home circle and paying deposits or rentals for availing of roaming service," he added.