CITIC Telecom International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CITIC Pacific, is gearing up for the launch of its self-developed "DataMall Global Data Traffic Trading Platform" in October.

DataMall, the first of its kind in the world, enables mobile operators to offer a basket of local data services to overseas mobile phone users without the need to change their SIM cards, mobile phone numbers or using any external device.

The service is designed to address widespread consumers' complaints of the prohibitively high charges of international data roaming. Overseas travelers can easily find themselves stung badly by unexpected fees for roaming services that they sometimes don't even know they used. The amounts can build up quickly to thousands of dollars.

According to a new study released this month by global mobile network operator Truphone and US-based market watcher International Data Corporation (IDC), over a third of Hong Kong businesspeople believe that company restrictions on the use of mobile services due to high mobile roaming cost while they are on assignment abroad is a major obstacle to business growth.

Some 19 percent of Hong Kong's traveling workforce is forbidden from using their mobile phones overseas, higher than the global average of 17 percent.

These findings concur with data provided by CITIC Telecom, which shows that as many as 70 percent of people surveyed never use data roaming services and about 47 percent said they usually shut off data roaming option on phones and limit it to free, or cheaper, Wi-Fi services, even though it may negate the whole point of having a smartphone.

More and more service providers have their eyes trained on cashing in on the enormous pent-up demand for affordable data roaming services.

As Truphone and IDC's report shows, Hong Kong businesspeople frequently travel overseas for work, with 38 percent hitting the road every two to three months, and 23 percent said they expected business travel to increase in the coming months.

This is where DataMall comes in, said Lin Zhenhui, chief executive officer of CITIC Telecom.

DataMall marks a departure from the conventional "mutual agency model" of roaming service and delivers a "direct transaction" between local operators and customers, giving customers the choice of selecting a specific overseas data network and making data traffic a tradable commodity all over the world, Lin said.

Mobile operators and major handset manufacturers in the region are expected to become the first batch of cooperative partners to join in DataMall platform, Lin said. Mobile operators from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore can also join DataMall as merchants, offering online transaction service for mobile data traffic products, he said, adding that by the end of 2015, the platform will be further expanded to cover several Southeast Asian countries, Japan, South Korea, the US and Europe.

Share price of CITIC Telecom rose slightly by 0.86 percent to close at HK$3.5 on Tuesday.

sophia@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/19/2015 page8)