Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, GSMA and Chairman of Bharti Airtel, on Monday said that eliminating domestic roaming charges will not just promote customer convenience by ending ‘bill shocks’ but help boost usage by customers.

The statement comes after China's three state-owned telecommunications companies said it planned to eliminate domestic roaming fees and offer pricing incentives to small and mid-sized enterprises, to encourage corporate customers to adopt network technology such as cloud computing.

“We are extremely delighted that GSMA’s call to bring an end to domestic roaming fees has received resounding support from the leading operators in China, the largest telecoms market in the world. The plan to eliminate domestic roaming fees will not just promote customer convenience by ending ‘bill shocks’ but help boost usage by customers through adoption of network technologies to augment productivity, innovation and economic growth.

“We are sure operators in other countries will take the cue from China’s example to usher in similar initiatives, in the interest of the customers,” Mittal said. GSMA is the global association of telecom operators and vendors.