In theory, the new deal will allow users to access e-mail and the Web in airports and cafes, from Sydney to Shanghai, without changing the notebook's network settings or facing more than one bill.
At today's signing ceremony in Singapore, the countries were represented by their respective operators: Telstra, Korea Telecom, China Netcom, Maxis from Malaysia and Singapore's StarHub.
Telstra sees Wi-Fi as a key growth opportunity and the agreement will ensure its customers receive high quality wireless broadband access when they travel throughout the region, said Ted Pretty, group managing director (Consumer and Marketing) at Telstra.
"This alliance will simplify roaming and billing as subscribers travel around the region," said Terry Clontz, CEO of StarHub.
The partnership should allow subscribers to roam with Wi-Fi as they do with mobile phones, Clontz said.
The first roaming tests will begin in July, but the group didn't commit to a launch date, saying it was too early to discuss fees or billing structures. However, it was mentioned that they would re-use as much of the current roaming phone-billing infrastructure as they could.
Billing options might include flat-fee access, or a mobile phone-style system in which users pay the local rates of the country they happen to be in, but get only one bill, the operators said.
When ready, subscribers will have access to 8,600 hot spots, including 17 international airports. This figure is expected to grow to over 20,000 hot spots by the end of the year, they added.
The deal follows hard of the heels of Intel's current Unwired marketing campaign, aimed at increasing the adoption of mobile wireless usage and a result, increase sales of its new Centrino and Pentium M mobile chipsets. The U.S.-based chipmaker is also investing in hot spot providers and other WLAN companies through a special fund, and also working with technology partners to tackle the thorny issues of interoperability between hot spots.
Analysts have said that the road to true Wi-Fi roaming will be bumpy. In addition to technical issues of Wi-Fi network settings, there is the revenue-sharing problem between operators. How they will sort this out will be interesting, as very few examples of Wi-Fi roaming currently exist, say experts.
The five members are currently in talks with other operators in the region to expand the number of countries covered and they don't believe that the new deal will undermine the adoption of third generation (3G) mobile phone services, which will boast high-speed Internet access.
Kim Jung Soon, director of Netspot, Korea Telecom's hot spot project group, said the two services will be complementary. Wi-Fi is fast and cheap but limited in coverage, while 3G is more expensive and slower but has wider coverage, he said.
"In future, we may have a system where a user with a PDA might enjoy low-cost, high-speed Net access in a hot spot. But when he leaves it, his terminal will transparently switch to a higher-cost, slower 3G service," he said.
In the Korean experience, mobile data users have a very low tolerance for gaps in coverage, so 3G will have to come in when Wi-Fi fails, he said.
