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Minister of Communications Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdullah Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar (L) and Singapore Minister of Information, Communications and the Arts, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, extended handshakes to commemorate the announcement of reducing roaming rates on voice, sms and data for mobile phone users. The event took took place at Brunei Pavilion at CommunicAsia 2012 event, Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Abdullah bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, Minister of Communications, Brunei Darussalam and His Excellency Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore, have jointly announced Brunei Darussalam’s and Singapore’s commitment to reduce the prevailing roaming rates for mobile phone users by 1Q 2013. The two Ministers made the announcement at the sidelines of the Ministerial Forum which was held as part of the annual Infocomm Media Business Exchange 2012, Asia’s largest infocomm and media platform.

As part of building strong bilateral ties between Brunei and Singapore, the Ministers have tasked the telecoms regulators of Brunei and Singapore to work with mobile operators to reduce the roaming rates.

The Minister of Communications gave some remarks on the special announcement on reducing of roaming rates for voice, sms and data between Brunei and Singapore

In his remarks at the event, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Abdullah bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, Minister of Communications, Brunei Darussalam said, “Brunei Darussalam is really looking forward to further progress in this arrangement. With the reduction in voice, SMS and data roaming services charges between the two countries, international mobile roaming services can be utilized in a more efficient and beneficial manner by our users. It will also spur further growth in the mobile industry”.

It was great to know that the Minister highlighted the usage of social media that plays an important role in the high usage of data among Bruneians. He added, ” There are currently 234,060 Facebook users in Brunei and in relation to our population; Brunei ranks No.1 among all countries in Asia in terms of penetration for the social networking site-Facebook, standing at 59.25%. Social networking services in the country are seen to grow at a rapid pace and this would also lead to growing number of data roaming traffic. Because of this, we should not impose very high charges to our customers as we do not want it to be perceived as a hindering factor for efficient connectivity.”

“Brunei and Singapore is not only looking into the possibility of roaming rates reduction in voice and SMS services, but also data. And we hope this would minimize the complaints on high roaming charges.Such initiative does not mean that it will overcome the challenges of high retail roaming charges and bill shock.”

“However, I also believe it can be done through self-regulation. For example, a systematic price transparency – empowering customers to make more informed choices when utilizing roaming services. We should also learn from the best practice on bill shock measures.”

His Excellency Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore, was delighted to announce the special collaboration between Brunei and Singapore for the reducing of roaming charges

His Excellency Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore said, “Brunei and Singapore enjoy a long history of warm friendship with strong cooperation in a wide range of issues of mutual interests, including infocomm issues. This collaboration seeks to provide cross-border communication at a lower cost for the people of Brunei and Singapore. It would also enhance and reduce the cost of doing business between the two countries.”

Both the wholesale inter-operator charges and the retail subscriber charges will be reviewed. As mobile roaming charges involve different price components charged by operators in both countries, any effort to reduce roaming charges would require coordination and cooperation between both regulators and operators to ensure that users from both countries benefit from the decision.

Check out the current data roaming charges from DST. This image is taken from DST Group website.

[RA’s summary]: As you can see that this is just an announcement between Brunei Darussalam and Singapore on the reduction of roaming charges between two mentioned countries. The expected time frame of the newly rates could be in the first quarter of 2013. So do expect another special announcement once the rates are finalised and these will be applicable to both telcos in Brunei – DST and b.mobile. AITI and IDA (Singapore) are mediators for the negotiations between both countries and this will result in a more competitive, affordable roaming rates and this will be a win-win situation. As for now, the data roaming is charged at 73 cents per 50kb. So you can image if I were to send an image on Whatsapp which could be as big as 1Meg. So that would be an estimated of $14 if I were to send that image to my friend. Ouucchh!!!

Group photo with the Ministers and representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Malaysia

His Excellency Dr Yaacob Ibrahim and Pehin Dato Hj Abdullah sharing a light moment after the announcement

During the short interview, the Minister expressed the frustration of mobile users in Brunei on high roaming charges especially on data usage and this issue have been highlighted on the ministerial level regionally to see how roaming rates can be reduced. He said after an agreement on the finalised rates on roaming charges between Brunei and Singapore, he hinted that Malaysia will be next country to work with on reducing roaming charges.

 

The Minister was being interviewed by Channel News Asia

Special offer to all b.mobile customers and you can watch The Amazing Spider-Man on 5th July 2012 at M-Vision Empire Cinema 8pm. Offer valid from 16th June to 4th July 2012.

The Minister of Communications with the Brunei senior officials after touring the Brunei Pavilion at CommunicAsia, Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands

Brunei Darussalam makes their presence in CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore when the Minister of Communications, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Abdullah bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar visited Brunei Darussalam Pavilion together with ministers from Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The ministers toured the booths of the 9 Brunei’s ICT companies who participated in the Brunei Darussalam Pavilion. The Brunei Darussalam’s minister also officiated 3 participating companies’ new products during the exhibition. One of them, Indah Sejahtera Development & Services Sdn Bhd (ISDS) launched their JoomBah applications. This application is part of a solution for the human resource industry that has already been installed over 2000 sites all over the world – from Australia to Zimbabwe. The Human Resource suite will include applicant tracking and HRIS (human resource information system) in future releases.

Pehin Dato Hj Abdullah officially launched JoomBah application created by Indah Sejahtera Development & Services Sdn Bhd

Mohammed Aleng Taib, founder of ISDS (left) speaking to the Minister while Christopher Ng, Marketing Manager & Business Development Executive looked on

Mars Enterprise launched their “Mars ERP in cloud and mobile”. Mr Foo Boon Seng, Proprietor presented the solution to Pehin. The solution aims to improve accessibility of traditionally offline-based ERP solutions by adding an online and mobile component.

The Minister pressed on the screen to launch Mr. Foo’s latest software called Mars ERP in cloud and mobile

Mr. Foo is very proud of his product and hopes his work will be a big hit internationally and he ended his presentation slide with “Brunei Yakin” motto

The third is an upcoming publishing company, PHMD who launched their latest book from the publishing company called “Made Simple” which is a book on m-Commerce & How to build a business app in 30 minutes. This is a guidebook for anyone who is interested in developing mobile devices applications.

AITI hopes that local Brunei ICT companies, by participating in CommunicAsia, will enable them to promote their ICT solutions, products and services to international buyers or partners.

The Minister cut the ribbon to officiate the launch of “Made Simple” book

The Minister also signed electronically on the iPad to commemorate the launch

Ak Mohd Khairi, General Manager and Project Manager of PHMD Publishing Company, talked briefly to the Minster on their latest book where one can easily create a mobile app