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Misconceptions about roaming in Pakistan
THE nationwide roaming on GSM mobile phone networks is the worst exploited tariff structure of the Pakistani mobile phone services. Unscathed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority — PTA, which does not realize the magnitude of the situation, mobile companies continue having a field day pillaging unwary customers. A greater irony is that, when approached, the PR department of the country’s largest mobile phone company was clueless about the whole issue. Thus the article explores the issues behind mobile phone roaming and emphasizes on the immediate need to end this exploitation.
A roaming client on our national cell phone networks is defined as any cell phone user operating outside his home city. Pakistan has been divided into two broad regions - the North and South with further subdivisions within. The northern region covers NWFP and Punjab and the southern region comprises of Sindh and Baluchistan. Roaming within your “region” is charged at a lesser rate of a maximum two rupees (depending on the operator) whereas roaming outside the region is charged at a much higher rate of a maximum six rupees per minute without the taxes included. Roaming is capable on your own mobile network only and roaming agreements between the two GSM operators do not exist.
The facility
GSM, or the Global System for Mobile communication was conceived to overcome the problems that surfaced due to incompatibility between mobile networks, all operating on different protocols. It is this interoperability that gives GSM phone users the advantage of operating on any GSM network adding the benefit of roaming on networks not even owned by the home network operator.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, roaming applies whenever you are on a “Visiting Network”. A visiting network is any network besides your own service provider. Additionally, “Roaming can be defined as a facility, supported by commercial arrangements between operators and/or service providers, which enables subscribers to use their radio telephone equipment on any other network which has entered into a roaming agreement in the same or another country for both outgoing and incoming calls. When a subscriber uses his/her radio telephone equipment on a network in another country, the term International roaming is used. (European Commission [1994], p.225.)
Roaming is hence not applicable on the operator’s own network and applies only when the subscriber moves onto another network. Contrary to this, all roaming charges in Pakistan are being charged for roaming on the operator’s own network and interoperability roaming agreements do not even exist!
Tariff structure debate
To better understand the tariff issues, we shall consider a few billing examples when roaming.
Consider a Karachi mobile user currently in Islamabad. According to the GSM network architecture, the Home Location Register (HLR) (At Karachi) identifies the subscriber as in the vicinity of Islamabad’s, Visitor Location Register (VLR), allowing all calls to be routed to the specific location. When the mobile user moves from one VLR to another, the HLR is updated about the location. All calls now made and received by the mobile subscriber within the new location would be handled within the visiting network location.
However, the mobile companies slam an exorbitant charge for all such calls, as shown in the table below:
In the above scenario the mobile user is utilizing the local networks but the tariff being a “two way long distance charge”. In a practical scenario it’s like having two cell phones side by side, but when you call one of them from the other, the caller pays a long distance call to Karachi and the receiver again pays a long distance roaming charge form Karachi to Islamabad, where by both are utilizing the same network of the particular VLR.
Mobile companies argue that the roaming user is at an advantage because people calling him from his home location get charged a local call. In that case too the total cost of the call at any time during the day exceeds any NWD landline call between the two locations. The immediate disadvantages to a roaming subscriber are:
1. An exorbitant charge for all incoming calls, irrespective of where they are originating from.
2. An exorbitant charge in the same visiting location and on the same or different network.
3. Unjustified profits to the mobile operator for a network that has not even been utilized.
It is surprising to note there is a remarkable difference in roaming charges imposed for roaming within the North and South zone as compared to inter zone roaming. The logic behind this is however not comprehendible.
What authorities have to say
During the course of investigation we put forward the issue of roaming charges to Mr. Muhammad Saeed, Director Tariff and Interconnection, PTA. “Sometime back, PTA reviewed Calling Party Pays (CPP) arrangements including Roaming Charge,” he said. The justification for Roaming Charges was discussed in detail and the extract of the Authority decision states that it was observed that levying roaming charges was a reasonable and fair mechanism to recover network usage cost from roaming customers out of their registered home location.
The Authority further observed that roaming charge was also an appropriate measure to discourage arbitrage by mobile users who would get a mobile connection from one station and take it to another station for using it to make NWD calls and paying only local call charges. Keeping in view the situation explained above, the Authority decided not to put any restriction on roaming charges till further orders. The operators, however, would not attempt to use this charge to compensate the reduction in the CPP charge or airtime ceiling.
Mobilink GSM, the mobile operator with the largest clientele of GSM users was contacted for their justification on Roaming Charges. However, the Manger Public Relations at Mobilink Islamabad, Shahnawaz Salahuddin, was clueless about the whole issue of roaming and failed to provide a satisfactory response.
But the technical sources inside mobile companies said that roaming charges from Landline to Mobile phones are charged in Pakistan to avoid arbitrage situation that can and does arise since charging in Pakistan is done on a distance band system (by PTCL). However on the same network as the mobile operator such roaming could not be justified.
A better picture of the International stance on roaming can be obtained from the statement by Janine Young, Group Communications Manager of Vodaphone (GSM Operator of UK) when asked about their roaming policies: “Vodafone customers are charged one fee for calling within their home country on their own network. They are charged a higher fee for roaming onto another network in their home country. The only exception is where a country is split into multiple parts such as with Eire and Northern Ireland. Roaming is not applicable on the same network.”
Any solution?
It goes without saying that the present charging policies of roaming as practiced in Pakistan are highly irrational and need to be immediately revised:
The following is required on immediate basis:
1. The present form of roaming should be abolished on the networks of all mobile operators. A roaming client should be treated as a local client on the same local tariff structure. This would require:
2. A roaming client to be treated as a local client for all incoming and outgoing calls for the region he is visiting, implying there be no charges on incoming calls and outgoing calls would be charged on distance basis
3. All incoming calls should be charged on Caller Party Pays rules whereby the caller pays for the actual distance he is calling and not for the distance to the Home Location of the subscriber
4. The above system is highly practical as a roaming subscriber is charged for the actual distance when he makes an outgoing call while roaming. If the billing for an outgoing call can be implemented on the basis of the actual distance, so can be done for the incoming calls.
5. A change in the PTCL system to bill calls on the CPP and actual distance based system for calls originating form a landline and terminating at a roaming mobile subscriber.
6. An interconnect agreement between the operators to allow one subscriber to roam onto other GSM networks (roaming charge would apply here). This would benefit mobile users enabling them to use an enhanced coverage area.
7. An interconnect agreement would allow new GSM operators to easily launch their services. During their network expansion phase their subscribers would benefit by roaming in areas not covered by the new operator.
It is the responsibility of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to protect the subscribers from any form of exploitation. Apparently the mobile operators have been able to manipulate roaming charges due to lack of information on part of the authorities. With prospects of new GSM operators stepping into the market and a mobile phone policy brewing, it is high time that PTA educates itself and puts an end to this digital massacre of mobile phone users.
The writer
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