Conexus Mobile Alliance will next year roll out a mobile data roaming plan for the popular Blackberry devices among alliance members of the Asian mobile operator group.
Indonesia's PT Indosat, India's MTNL, Philippines' Smart Communications, Singapore's StarHub and Thailand's True Move will be rolling out the new plan by the end of 1Q-2009.
The plan is currently offered by Hutchison Telecom in Hong Kong while Japan's NTT DoCoMo will start to offer promotional special rates for data roaming users, including BlackBerry users, in 1Q-2009.
Depending on the operator, the alliance said, specific rates may vary and the plan may also be activated for other mobile devices.
Chan Kin Hung, chairman of Conexus and head of StarHub's advanced multimedia services, said the plan helps businesses control their costs better because of its predictability in data roaming charges.
Meanwhile, Thailand's True Move and India's BSNL and MTNL will start offering the alliance's pay-per-day data roaming flat-rate plan for their customers in their respective operating countries by first quarter of 2009.
The alliance will also extend its SIM card replacement service into Thailand and India. True Move's service centers will begin to offer this service from December 1, while India's MTNL will follow suit by 1Q-2009.
To further offer customers the home-away-from-home seamless roaming experience, nine alliance members have agreed to establish a roaming toll-free customer service hotline in 1Q-2009.