Sistema Shyam TeleServices is planning to launch internet dongles for international travellers. The dongles will enable CDMA subscribers to roam on GSM networks when they travel abroad.

“We are launching special dongles for international travellers which would connect with partner GSM networks across the world and at the same time have an MTS India number...We will continue adding to our list of partner networks all over the over the world,” Mr Leonid Musatov, Chief Marketing Officer, MTS India, told Business Line .

SSTL, which operates mobile services under the MTS brand and broadband services under the Mblaze brand, is a joint venture between Russia-based Sistema and Mr Rajeev Mehrotra-promoted Shyam Telecom.

It is one of the few operators providing services on the Code Division Multiple Access or CDMA platform in India. Industry analysts feel that the dongles provided by MTS could have dual sim capability thereby enabling it to switch services to the GSM platform while roaming abroad. Mr Musatov said it already has 443 network partners in 231 countries.

The company is internally testing its international roaming offering currently and plans to do a full-fledged launch over the next two months. The pricing would be “competitive,” the company said, without getting into further details.

Separately, a MTS India spokesperson said that the company is offering the lowest calling rates to Russia and the CIS countries.

Call to CIS countries – Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan – are priced at Rs 5.99 per minute. Calls to Russia, as part of a special Russia calling card, are priced at Rs 4.99 per minute.

While MTS has 10 million customers in India, it has over 100 million in Russia and other CIS countries. SSTL, which now offers services in 18 circles of India, is targeting 30 million customers by 2013.

(This correspondent's trip to the US was sponsored by SSTL)

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