SunCorp

How Operators Run A Cartel And Fleece Customers

Why do you end up with a hole in your pocket every time you travel abroad and use your mobile phone? Why does the phone bill suddenly go through the roof ? It’s because international roaming charges are prohibitively high—each time you make a call from overseas on your mobile, you pay anything between 20-40 times more than what you would if the call was made from your home country.

    This skewed billing pattern is not peculiar to India. In fact, it is universally recognised as one of the biggest uncontrolled globally networked scams, involving selfserving reciprocal arrangements that allow mobile operators around the world to rip off customers on international roaming.
    Global roaming tariffs, say telecom industry analysts, represent a failure supervision by some of the world’s leading regulators. “Regulators have clearly looked the other way while operators join at the hip to openly run a cartel that works on a principle of ‘You fleece my subscriber while I fleece yours’,’’ said Anil Kumar of Telecom Watchdog, an NGO.
    Consider this: While the ISD tariff for calling most countries from India is a flat Rs 6.40/minute (barring the Gulf, for which the rate is Rs 9.19/minute), an international roamer is charged up to Rs 150/minute for the same call.
    Whether you are travelling to the US, UK, Singapore or Dubai—the four most frequented destinations for Indians—or almost any other foreign location, the story is the same. While the average cost to call India from the US is 10 cents or Rs 4.41/minute, Indian roamers are charged Rs 140 or almost 32 times this amount. To call India from the UK is even costlier at Rs 150/minute.

    Even Vodafone’s recent ownership of Hutch Essar has not helped Indians get a better deal in the UK or 64 other countries where the company operates (see chart). In addition, international roaming follows a 60-second call metering, which means if you cross over to the second minute even by two seconds, you are billed for the entire second minute.
    For places like Dubai, where call rates to India are at an average of Rs 16/minute, Indians are charged Rs 120/minute or 11 dirhams.
    There is more bad news. For incoming calls that have been free in India since May 2003, international travellers roaming in India are charged exorbitant rates and in some cases, as much as Rs 143/minute. Similarly, Indians are subjected to an incoming tariff of Rs 75/minute in the US, Rs 27.60/minute in the UK, Rs 34/minute in Singapore and Rs 55/minute in Dubai.

    This is in spite of the fact that, with the exception of the US, most countries have a free incoming regime. SMSs face a similar pattern with each outgoing SMS charged at a whopping Rs 15. In addition, many of these already exorbitant tariffs are subjected to many taxes and levies.

    “Rates are high, but not much can be done till Trai is able to negotiate global roaming agreements, at least for the Saarc countries,’’ said T V Ramachandran of COAI, a body representing GSM mobile operators, while the spokesman of Auspi, which represents CDMA operators, declined to comment.
    “We had asked the European Union four-five months ago to allow India to benefit from the EU roaming rate reductions, but there has been no response. International roaming tariffs need to be brought down, but it is not a subject that can be addressed by a single regulator,’’ said N Misra, chairman, Trai, the Indian telecom regulator.