Agenda Setting on Mobile Roaming Rate Control to Promote ASEAN Integration

Abstract

ASEAN integration mainly aims to promote close collaboration and productive partnership with visually distinctive characteristics for one identity among ASEAN countries. Consequently, there will be free flow of investments, tourists and labors across national border so that a number of linkage journey and communication will be more intense. As a result, a number of mobile calling usage growth among ASEAN-oriented people will be obviously increase. Currently, mobile roaming prices are charged if inter-calling made between visit and home country or any third country. The main purposes of this study are to examine whether mobile roaming rate control come to be issued or not and what should be in meaning regarding to or not to be the issue, and second what the specific alternative for ASEAN should be made in case of mobile roaming. Agenda setting and alternative generation based logically on policy window model by using documentary research were conducted. The results show that, in Thailand, mobile service operators are in oligopoly holding tremendously powerful over the telecommunication markets; subsequently such roaming charges are set in high rates. Nowadays, an organized pressure groups and national mood tend to activated campaigns on other customer protection aspects. In governmental view, there is ASEAN ICT Master plan 2015collectively developed by ICT ministers to document an addendum on ASEAN telecommunications regulators council (ATRC) intra-ASEAN mobile roaming rates (MRR) to the record of intent (ROI) in order that the use of mobile calling across the region will be consolidated. Because of considered as private issue, it is rather careless to control roaming rate on government role. On the one hand, there are many attractive alternatives to reduce intra-ASEAN mobile roaming prices varies from negotiation to regulation. As initiated in Singapore-Malaysia case, thus, the reasonable specific alternative of mobile roaming rate control should be an activity which, if possible, could be multilateral to promote greater collaborative for ASEAN integration.