GSMA Mobile Asia Congress, the sister event of Mobile World Congress, has been successfully held from November 12 to 15 in Macau. Top executives from China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo of Japan, and Bharti Airtel of India participated in the opening keynote address session on November 12.

Major developments of mobile communications unveiled at the event include:

- As part of GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, mobile operators worldwide are expected to launch trials of contactless mobile services over the next few months. KTF of Korea, ahead of its peers, has already begun trials involving real transactions by means of mobile phones with NFC (Near Field Communication) capability. Such trials are being carried out by KTF in Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. At present, Maxis in Malaysia is also conducting trials of contactless mobile services.

- Conexus Mobile Alliance, comprising 11 telecom operators across the Asia Pacific region, announced on November 13 the first pay-per-day data roaming flat-rate tariff plan in Asia. Seven members of the Alliance - including Far EasTone Telecommunications of Taiwan, Hutchison Telecommunications of Hong Kong, PT Indosat of Indonesia, KTF of Korea, NTT DoCoMo of Japan, Smart Communications of the Philippines, and StarHub of Singapore - are scheduled to jointly roll out the pay-per-day data roaming flat rate plan.

At the event, Conexus Mobile Alliance also welcomed two new members onboard: BSNL and MTNL, both of India.