'High roaming charges are used by operators to curb revenue dips from domestic biz'

LIRNEasia recently came up with a detailed report on roaming and intra-Saarc calling charges. What were the main highlights of the report?

The benchmarking report was based on the prices reported by the operator with highest market share based on the number of subscribers. The report shows that the Indian operators charge the highest roaming rates closely followed by the Bhutanese and that the Afghan consumers pay the highest rates when they use roaming services in other Saarc countries. The roaming tariffs in most countries are opaque. It's often cheaper to use a local SIM that to use roaming services.

The operators are bleeding in domestic markets, so in order to maintain their balance sheets, they are depending more on roaming revenues. How far is it justified?

It is common for the operators to subsidise other lines of business with revenues generated by one. High roaming charges are used by most operators as a means to make up for sinking revenues from domestic voice services. And as far as it is unregulated, the operators will continue to do so. The mandate of the national regulatory authority is to protect its consumers and not foreign visitors; therefore, on one hand, it can be argued that there is no reason to regulate the roaming tariffs. On the other hand, if the sub-sector remains unregulated, all consumers of the roaming services will suffer. Therefore, if the event tariff regulation is imposed, it needs to be done with caution and with striking a balance between consumer protection and operator sustainability in mind.