Mobile Broadband Strategies » Keys to 4G Success

The GSMA has announced it will begin to promote data roaming transparency measures to help mobile customers more clearly understand their roaming data usage.

Twenty-four operators signed up for the initiative at the Mobile Asia Expo this week according to Telecompaper. Operators agreed to send text alerts to remind customers of their data roaming tariffs when they turn on their phones after arriving in another country. They have also stated they will implement monthly data roaming spending limits and send users alerts when they are about to reach that limit. Operators have agreed to have these measures in place by the end of 2012.

Yankee Group Research VP Declan Lonergan comments

"It never ceases to amaze me just how constructive mobile operators can get when faced with the prospect of regulatory intervention. In this instance it's good to see others following where the EU has led. European regulators have consistently pushed operators to adopt more transparent and fairer data roaming charges and notification policies. The EU authorities are even going as far as to facilitate the creation of a new class of service provider that offer roaming services through wholesale agreements with national players. The GSMA's announcement essentially extends the key benefits of the EU regulation to customers of mobile operators in other markets. Though the operators appear to bear the brunt of the new guidelines, anything that dissuades hundreds of millions of business travellers and holiday makers from systematically switching off data roaming services because they fear bill-shock will ultimately benefit the entire mobile industry."