The Hindu Business Line : No roam service!

I had been warned that my GSM mobile phone would not work in Japan. Yet when I checked on the Web site of my service provider, Airtel, I was reassured that GSM phones do work. And the Web site informed me there were two operators I could choose from. The cost of making a call to India on the network of the roaming partner was put at Rs 129.69 a minute, exorbitant by today's standards, when you can make calls from home to Japan for a tenth of that price. I consoled myself by harking back to the days just a decade ago when an international call from India would cost up to Rs 72 a minute.

The moment our aircraft landed in Tokyo, I switched on my mobile, but it could find no accepting network. Some others on the plane met with success; they had got themselves phones especially for the trip, ones that were designed to work in the land of the rising sun. My instrument was the outcaste. Had it been a third generation (3G) compliant model, it would have worked, said someone helpfully. The Airtel Web site also had mentioned the network frequency as `3G'.

My phone was not versatile enough to work on that frequency, and I faced the prospect of four days of silence from the mobile. (I found some use for the instrument though, as an alarm clock to wake me up three-and-a-half hours earlier each morning, given the different time zone.)

I would have to say that most businessmen do not quite relish the prospect of staying out of the loop. But it is a fact that Japan's mobile phone system remains incompatible with most systems that prevail around the world. It uses the CDMA-based system similar to what Reliance and Tata Indicom work with in India but not quite the same; so the home phones will not work. The less said about the chances of ordinary GSM phones working there the better.

This is not a problem only for visitors from India; phones from most countries do not work in Japan. So one of the local operators provides a helpful alternative: if you book in advance, for 500 yen (about Rs 190) a day you can rent a local phone from the airport and have all your calls forwarded to that phone. Call charges are extra of course! But then you remain connected.

If this is the fate of visitors to Japan, it is no different for Japanese who visit India, for instance. Their multi-faceted, multi-tasking phones don't work either. So when they do come they need to bring with them a special SIM card that is designed to work in GSM phones, and remembers their Japan number as well. And that comes at a hefty premium.

Such is the wretched communications incompatibility at the dawn of a new phase of relations between the two countries. January marks the start of India tourism year in Japan, when a substantial number of tourists are going to be persuaded to try out an Indian holiday.

With the Japanese Government unequivocally announcing its intention to engage more closely with India, more businessmen are also expected to fly over to prospect for investment opportunities. The incompatibility of the mobile phone could yet test the most determined and most patient of them. Would many stay contented with the conventional wired phone as I had to?

Response may be sent to kvenu@thehindu.co.in

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