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Saturday October 4, 2008 MYT 4:43:17 PM

Roaming charges within Asean to be reduced

By SARBAN SINGH


SEREMBAN: Roaming charges for mobile phone users in the Asean region could be reduced possibly by even half as early as January as the present rates are exceptionally high for users in most of the developing economies.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said this was necessary as the present roaming charges are a stumbling block for people from the Asean region to communicate more often.

“We plan to reduce the roaming charges with Singapore first. In fact, I told the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) two weeks ago to proceed with this,” he said.

Shaziman said his Asean counterparts had also agreed to this during the 8th Asean Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministers meeting held in Bali, Indonesia, in August.

Also present at the meeting were representatives from China, Japan, South Korea and India.

“Reducing the roaming rates would also reduce the burden on the tens of thousands of Malaysians who commute to Singapore daily to work.

“As these commuters become increasingly dependent on their mobile phones, we do not want them to pay exceptionally high roaming charges when their workplace is only a few kilometres away from their homes in Johor Baru,” he said.

Shaziman said his Singaporean counterpart Dr Lee Boon Yang had also welcomed the lower rates during their meeting.

“We agreed to get our respective telcos to look into this. From the feedback that I have received from our telcos, they have no problems reducing the charges,” he said.

According to available statistics, Malaysia has the second highest number of mobile phone users in Asean. Singapore has the highest penetration rate.

Shaziman said telcos had always been supportive of proposals to help improve the mobile telecommunications network and to ensure it remained affordable.

“Previously, I had asked them to lengthen the period for mobile users who used the pre-paid service so that the users would be able to make and receive calls or send text messages for a longer period. I am happy to note that the telcos have improved on this,” he said.

Shaziman declined to comment on what the acceptable rate for roaming charges would be. He said that telcos would not lose out as the volume of calls made would increase.

“If you ask me, anyone making a call from JB to Singapore should be charged a local rate. But let the MCMC and the telcos come up with a structure that is acceptable,” he said.

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