3G roaming services to halt soon?

The Department of Telecom (DoT) plans to ask mobile phone companies to terminate 3G-roaming agreements, a move that will prevent telcos from providing high-speed data facilities on a pan-India basis and deprive customers from accessing them in areas where their operators don't have permits. Operators such as Bharti, Idea, Vodafone and Aircel have signed up 3G customers across the country riding on bilateral roaming agreements that allow these firms to use each other's airwaves and offer high-end data services even in regions where they do not have third-generation spectrum. This has resulted in, for instance, a Bharti customer in Kolkata being able to access 3G services even though the company does not have a licence for West Bengal. This is different from 2G roaming agreements where a telco cannot offer services in a region for it does not hold a licence. While telcos say the licensing terms allow for 3G roaming pacts, sector regulator TRAI and the DoT say these alliances violate licence rules. A senior DoT official said his department planned to issue notices terminating these agreements after getting the law ministry's clearance. This will restrict Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel to providing 3G services such as high-speed internet, video calls and interactive gaming in only those circles where they won airwaves in last year's auctions. But the ban will not impact Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and S Tel as they have not entered into roaming pacts. But the proposed ban will not impact customers who are travelling outside their home networks. They will continue to enjoy 3G services as the ban will apply to 'intra-circle' roaming deals and not 'inter-circle' pacts. At present, India has 10-12 million 3G subscribers but it is not known how many of them are using these services through the roaming pacts.

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