Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted that Asia-Pacific's roaming base will increase to 170mn roamers, up from 36mn in 2004, and accounting for 20% of the world's outbound roamers by 2010. Outbound roamers from Asia-Pacific only accounted for 5% of the region's subscriber base in 2004, and will increase to 13% by 2010. Growth in global roaming will be driven by increases in prepaid roaming, and more contract users utilising roaming while travelling abroad. Additionally in Asia-Pacific, there are increased opportunities for new roamers with inter-technology offerings for roamers in Japan and Korea. While the overall growth of mobile subscribers is focused on emerging markets, growth in roaming usage will also come from the mature developed markets of Asia-Pacific lead by regional and global alliance initiatives, such as the SingTel-led Bridge Mobile Alliance which has announced its first commercial offering of a common prepaid roaming topup service and common short codes to be implemented across its member networks. The alliance also announced the addition of a new member, CSL of Hong Kong, a previous member of the Asia Mobility Initiative alliance. In November 2004, Maxis of Malaysia also left the AMI alliance to join the Bridge Mobile Alliance, so a further defection ensures an uncertain future for AMI in Asia. The alliances are focused regionally, but dual strategies exist to capture both the inbound and outbound markets. One such example is MobileOne of Singapore, a member of AMI and also a Vodafone global partner network. Its dual-alliance strategy focuses on Asia with the AMI and globally with Vodafone. In a heavy inbound roaming market, MobileOne's strategy is to be the preferred inbound roaming partner for the largest global network of operators, while offering its own subscribers advantages while roaming within Asia with its new Asia Connect tariff.
www.telecoms.com/gmroaming