Concerned over the high international roaming rates at a time when domestic rates have reached rock bottom, Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran asked worldwide GSM operators to bring down the roaming rates.
Addressing the media after GSM Association's Board meeting held in New Delhi, Maran asked the international operators to reduce the international roaming rates to benefit customers.
On an average, a customer spends over Rs 100 a minute for making a call while roaming overseas, even as international roaming tariffs vary from operator to operator depending on their negotiations with overseas partners for settlement of termination and other charges.
The GSM Association, which has over 700 operators as members, held its board meeting in India for the first time, though did not make any announcement in this regard but are likely to respond positively to the minister's request.
The GSM technology-based mobile subscriber base has touched two billion this month making it the fastest growth of technology ever witnessed in the world, GSMA announced in New Delhi.
GSM-based mobile services have seen phenomenal growth in India, where out of the 100 million mobile subscriber base, the GSM based mobile user base is 80 million.
"India has played a vital role in this growth being one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world," Sunil Mittal CMD Bharti Airtel and a board member of GSM Association told reporters. China is the largest single GSM market in the world today with more than 370 million users, said Craig Ehrlich, GSMA Chairman.
"While it took 12 years for the industry to reach the first billion connection, the second billion has been achieved in just two and half years, boosted by the phenomenal growth of mobiles in emerging markets like China, India, Africa, Latin America, accounting 82 percent of the second billion subscribers."
Maran welcomes Reliance's plan to expand GSM services: On Tuesday, Maran welcomed Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communication's plan to expand GSM service for which the company has sought spectrum in 1800 Mhz band. "I am happy that Reliance has decided to expand into GSM services," he told worlwide GSM Association, which is in New Delhi to hold it board meeting.
Commending GSM handset manufacturers for bringing the mobile revolution mainly due to lower handset prices, Maran said, CDMA-based operators could not do so due to royalty obligations of CDMA players towards the developer of the technology.
As per trade practice, CDMA operators are mandated to give a royalty to US based Qualcom for usage of this technology, which is an added cost compared to no such obligation for GSM operators.
The minister is understood to have referred to this disparity among the two sets of service providers to indicate that GSM operators were in an advantagous position.
According to sources, this was one of the reasons for Reliance Communications to switch over to GSM technology from the existing CDMA. Reliance has a subscriber base of over 20 million and has pan India foot print.
The company recently approached Department of Telecom seeking spectrum in 1800 Mhz (a frequency for GSM services) initially for Delhi and Mumbai. DoT is yet to take a decision on Reliance's application.
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