WASHINGTON-The United States and Canada are the largest trading partners in the world. Mexico is the United States’ fastest-growing export market and the top tourist destination for Americans. Latin American immigrants are the second-largest cultural group in the United States.
With these facts in hand, it is easy to understand why PageMart Wireless Inc., based in the United States, has been working hard for the past few years to consolidate a truly pan-American paging network that includes the United States and Canada, and literally works its way south through Mexico to Central and South America.
“Our core strategy was to initially establish a [North American Free Trade Agreement]-wide network,” explained Rick Nelson, president of PageMart’s International Division. “And once you add Mexico, you should add Guatemala, and then you should add El Salvador, and so on. Each new country adds value to the network. The countries are important to one another and, as a set, to the United States.”
Currently, the PageMart network already is operational in the Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It also has reached agreements to start operations in Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela by this year. The most current addition to the network is Colombia, where PageMart international roaming should be introduced in early 1999.
Instead of setting up a new operation in each country, PageMart chose to establish partnerships with local operators to service each other’s customers. All participants operate on the same radio frequency-929 MHz-to ensure transparent, cross-border wireless messaging. Each uses Motorola Inc.’s FLEX wireless platform.
With the catch-phrase “one pager, no borders,” PageMart expects to offer its customers the convenience of international roaming and attract new users with this added value.
When traveling, the subscriber notifies PageMart, through an 800 access number, to move coverage to a different country. Subscribers are paged by their same local numbers. The rates to add international roaming to a subscriber’s coverage include a US$5 activation fee and US$8 per month for numeric service and US$20 activation fee and US$16 per month for the alphanumeric option.
According to the U.S.-based Personal Communications Industry Association, the number of international service-area subscribers has been increasing steadily. Nonetheless, some analysts are skeptical of the importance of international roaming for attracting new paging customers.
Gustavo Korte, a telecommunications consultant in Brazil, believes international roaming is an interesting concept, but “it is still unclear how useful it will prove to be. Technically it can be a problem since many countries in South America have not granted the 929 MHz band yet.”
Korte also believes the bureaucracy and restrictive laws in some countries can delay the introduction of international roaming in the scale envisioned by PageMart.
Nelson said he recognizes that regulatory hurdles are sometimes a barrier for the contiguous expansion, but “once the regulatory agencies see the benefit for their citizens and for tourists and corporate visitors, they are very cooperative. It just takes time to get the word out.”
To PageMart’s participating carriers in the Americas, the cross-border network provides a key way to differentiate their services from the competition.
Oscar Barahona, general manager and vice president of the board of directors at Costa Rica’s Radio Mensajes S.A., said, “We live in a time of global relationships. Businesses are not confined within a single country anymore. Being able to offer international roaming to our customers gives us a competitive advantage.” Radio Mensajes is the first company in Costa Rica to offer international roaming.
“[The partnership] is a winning combination for all of us. It allows us to differentiate ourselves from other companies,” said Reginald Chauvet, chief executive officer and general manager for Bip Communications S.A. in Haiti.
The company will be the first one to offer international roaming in its country, as well.
