With business travels and personal travels, including tourism among countries and within a country, increasing by every passing day, the roaming market is bound to witness a growth directly proportionate to the travels made. At “Billing and Roaming India 2008”, an international conference held at the Le Meridian, New Delhi, on March 7, experts predicted a huge growth for the roaming industry in the coming months. The Asia Pacific market for roaming is expected to rise from $8.3 bn to $14.3 bn in the next three years, said Alon Weinstein, VP, Asia Pacific, Starhome, during the keynote address.

Ever since roaming services were introduced, the Apac market has touched only $8.3 bn. But touching $14.3 bn, about 70% growth, in just three years is definitely encouraging. If the players want to accelerate the growth rate further, international roaming charges have to be slashed drastically. Low tariff rates will certainly encourage existing and new users to make and receive more calls and send more SMSes, generating more revenues for the players involved.

Steady growth of roaming users is a common phenomenon globally as well as in India. At present, 400 mn roaming customers are estimated to be in the market globally and the figure is only going upward. According to Weinstein, India is witnessing a much higher growth rate than other Apac countries in this regard. As the roaming users increase and they expect flexibility in bill collection and want detailed billing, processing of roaming bills has become a challenging task as payment in installment is not accepted by the billing system. SD Saxena, director, Finance, BSNL, says that BSNL alone prepares and collects bills to the tune of Rs 20 crore-plus every month. "The cost of issuing bills to some 20% of the country's population and collecting the payments were posing serious problems," he added.

Ironically, the cost of providing a bill has become more than the cost of services.

While the roaming market is registering a steady growth, the challenge for the service provider is getting high revenue with low tariff plans. According to DPS Seth, former member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), roaming charges are on the higher side. It is understandable that in international roaming, a service provider utilizes the infrastructure of international players, thus, roaming charges are justified. But “why should there be roaming charges within a country where every operator has its own infrastructure facilities?” is a concern for most customers, and needs to be addressed by the carriers to increase their ARPU.

Kannan K
kannan@cybermedia.co.in