MTNL and BSNL join the Conexus Mobile Alliance

15 November 2007

The two telcos say they aim to deliver ground-breaking, genuine and tangible benefits to international roamers and realize its vision of offering the highest level of customer satisfaction in mobile services to corporate and consumer markets.

In April 2006 Conexus Mobile Alliance came in to being in partnership with the seven member operators, including Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd. in Taiwan, Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited in Hong Kong, PT Indosat Tbk in Indonesia, KT Freetel Co., Ltd. in South Korea, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan, Smart Communications, Inc. in the Philippines and StarHub Ltd. in Singapore, have worked in concerted and unwavering efforts to ensure that all members'' customers are able to experience seamless and hassle-free mobile-related services when they roam into members'' networks.

In the first quarter of 2008, the seven member operators will jointly roll out the first pay-per-day data roaming flat rate plan in Asia. Apart from the geographical expansion to Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, BSNL and MTNL top telecommunications company in India will also help strengthen the Alliance''s network as it grows internationally.

Furthermore, an all-you-can-use* data roaming daily rate will be offered in some members'' networks, enabling members'' customers travelling across members'' countries or cities to check emails, transmit data or surf on the Internet via their mobile devices while completely doing away with the need to count the data usage**. Subscription is not required in most of the member networks. Members'' customers will be automatically charged based on the data roaming flat rate tariff plan while roaming onto members'' networks.

(* Details of the flat-rate data-roaming tariff vary among member operators and are subject to each operator''s final discretion. ** Option for members to provide flat rate plan with pre-set ceiling in data usage.)

Chan Kin Hung, chairman of the Alliance''s board and head of StarHub''s advanced multimedia services, said, "We are very pleased with this achievement in bringing the first-ever pay-per-day data roaming flat-rate plan in Asia. With the increasing popularity of mobile broadband (HSDPA) roaming in the region, it is important for the Alliance to offer peace of mind to our customers as they use these services while roaming.