Airtel, Idea, Vodafone inks 3G roaming pact

Bharti Airtel Ltd. | Telecommunication - Service Provider | Telecom | BSE: 532454 | NSE: BHARTIARTL

15 Jul 2011 Evaluate

Telecom majors Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone have signed 3G roaming pact in an effort to reduce cost and offer pan-India services. The telecom service providers have started sharing their networks to provide seamless service to their customers.

The three service providers will now use each other's networks through inter and intra-circle roaming arrangements where they do not have licenses. However, the revenue sharing arrangement among the operators was not disclosed by them.

Recently, Bharti Airtel had added 24.50 lakh mobile subscribers in May. Following the said addition, the company’s total subscriber count stood at 16.71 crore. Idea Cellular had added up 18 lakh new subscribers during the month of May. Following the said addition, the company’s total subscriber count stood at 9.37 crore. However, the Vodafone’s Indian unit too has added 24.50 lakh subscribers in May, taking its total count to 13.94 crore.

Also, the 14-player telecom industry was waiting for several issues to be sorted out, including spectrum allocation, licensing , tariffs, pricing, spectrum sharing and trading, rollout obligations and mergers and acquisitions norms. The New Telecom Policy 2011, which was likely to bring more clarity in the Indian telecom industry is expected to come out before the year-end. Communication Minister Kapil Sibal said, India will resolve all pending issues related to the telecom sector by October and also develop its own telecom security protocols and equipment testing facility.