I have vodafone in the UK and vodafone exists as a sim provider in india but i can’t use my UK sim without paying international roaming fees. Seeing as it’s all part of the same company won’t they just be able to use my UK plan in india and vice versa?
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The towers in each country are owned by the tower company that makes them and not your cell phone company. Your company may have an agreement for towers in your country and an agreement for towers in another country for the company that runs them there but that doesn’t mean that it is the same contract. If it is different then you have to abide by the contract terms of the tower companies in the country you want to use the towers from.
So, Vodafone uses “Vantage Towers” for most of the UK. It is a joint venture in ownership between Vodaphone and Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited (CTIL) as a 50:50 agreement.
In India, however, Vodafone does not use a single tower company. Vantage towers is not available in India. Instead, there used to be a few resources, but at the current moment Vodafone is using Indus towers and Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Limited (ICISL) Towers to facilitate their calls in India. This means they have to pay a lease rate to be able to use the towers for their services in that country and this charge is subsequently passed on to you (likely with a level of markup for their services in procuring these towers for you).
**EDIT:**
**TLDR VERSION:** Your SIM card is validating the credentials of your phone in accessing the services of the satellite that your phone uses but your phone doesn’t connect directly to a satellite unless it’s a “SAT” phone or a phone specifically designed for that. Instead, the towers in a given country can receive the signal from the satellite and distribute it. Your phone will ping one of these towers but you need permission from the tower company to do this. Because different countries have different tower companies (India specifically being one that is notably difficult to work with), you pay to connect to the towers.
It’s entirely a business decision to charge roaming fees, whether among different corporations or different business units under the same corporation.
As others mentioned, the radio access network isn’t fully owned by Vodafone in either countries, making operation costs an external thing. There is zero or even negative incentive for them to waive roaming fees.
They are not the same company. Most countries require any company doing business in the country (ie selling and making money) incorporate a domestic company. Some countries allow for this company to be wholly owned by a parent company. Others may not or have some restrictions apply.
Vodafone in India is a partnership between Vodafone group and a local Indian company. So it is not the same company.
This doesn’t mean that the India based company couldn’t offer some special deal for roaming. But they’re really not forced to.
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