Roaming: A Long Way Ahead

Reliance Infocomm's launch of  '1world 1number' international roaming on CDMA and GSM
networks is a remarkable move towards making inter-standard roaming a reality.
The service will enable Reliance customers to roam on a GSM network
internationally. The network element for deployment of inter-standard roaming
has been developed by Reliance's technology innovation center. The caller line
identification of the customer would remain to be a Reliance number. So
technically speaking, customers will no longer have to opt for call-forwarding,
while travelling from a CDMA network to GSM network and vice versa. Reliance has
tied up with 11 CDMA networks and 340 GSM networks under the roaming
arrangement.

Though technology allows the service, the process is
cumbersome. A customer will have to go to a Reliance Web World to procure a SIM
card, which can be used with a GSM handset to be able to roam on GSM networks.
To roam on the CDMA network, customers will have the option to switch to CDMA
handset. Reliance claims to offer the widest international roaming coverage and
lowest roaming rates.

So effectively, the customers will have to keep two
handsets to be able to avail of the innovative services being offered by
Reliance. Interestingly, Tata Teleservices also announced its intention to
launch a similar service in March. Tata Indicom's service, also known as
'One World One Number' will be available across 186 countries with the help
of 291 GSM roaming partners and five CDMA partners. These services are targeted
only for its postpaid customers.

Reliance and Tata Indicom were losing a lot of roaming
revenue due to the inability of its subscribers to remain connected.

Handset Tangle

A major area of concern is that CDMA/GSM roaming requires carrying of two
handsets of each technology, which can be big deterrent for consumers. Billing
is another area that could cause inconvenience to the users. Qualcomm has made
available multimode chipsets (CDMA 2000 1x, EV-DO and GSM/GPRS) with
inter-standard roaming features. It provides a solution for OEMs to build a
handset that enables both the CDMA and GSM air interfaces to be accessed with a
single chipset. However, the response from most of the handset vendors towards a
multimode handset has been slow.

Why Not In India?

Curiously, there is no roaming arrangement between Tata Indicom and Reliance
Infocomm in India, despite having a CDMA network. Moreso, there is no
arrangement between GSM and CDMA operators in India for inter-standard roaming.
As the network of both the operators are far from being truly pan India, the
subscribers having Tata or Reliance phone very frequently go out of coverage,
while on the move. Even if a Reliance subscriber is present in areas where Tatas
have their network, the lack of roaming arrangement ensures that the subscriber
remains cut-off from the rest of the world. According to Reliance's official
position, “As Reliance Infocomm has pan India network coverage, there is no
need to have tie-ups within the country.”

Sudesh Prasad

sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in