Roaming charges soon to become history: GSMA chief

BARCELONA: Describing roaming charges as one of reasons for customer dissatisfaction, a telecom giant urged mobile operators to improve their image in the eyes of the customers.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) and founder and chairman of India- based Bharti Enterprises, bemoaned the fact that reputation indices showed mobile operators as “trending just above the tobacco industry.”

He was speaking at one of the interactive sessions held on the second day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) here on Tuesday.

Mittal said that around 55 percent of mobile users in developed countries switch their phones off while traveling abroad to avoid being clobbered by hefty roaming charges.

He estimated that about 90 percent of travelers from emerging markets switch off their data, and perhaps voice too, when they travel.

“I can promise you, during my tenure in the GSMA roaming charges will become a thing of the past,” he said.

Mittal urged telecom regulators and governments to make trading conditions easier. “The need to do so was urgent, as revenue is tapering off and down to single digit figures, which is unsustainable in a capital intensive business,” he added.

According to Mittal, the mobile industry capex levels stand at hundreds of billions of dollars but the return of the capital employed was also in single lowdigit figures.

“You may as well put the money in the bank and play golf,” quipped Mittal.

At a separate press conference, Ericcson’s new CEO Borje Ekholm admitted the company was focused on setting its future direction.

He revealed that his company’s market research revealed that 5G technology would open a market opportunity valued at $1.2 trillion by 2026.

Chang-Gyu Hwang, CEO of KT said: “5G is not only about speed, connectivity and capacity but also intelligence. The challenge is to turn this concept into real life innovation,” he said.

Jose Maria Alvarez- Pallete, chairman and CEO of Telefonica, also stressed the need for added intelligence as operators undergo massive digital transformation.

Mayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, said that he believed the number of robots would exceed human population in less than 30 years.