Tell ATUG your International Roaming war stories!

ATUG Roam Fair Campaign
ATUG has been working to convince the Australian Government that International Roaming prices MUST be reduced. ATUG’s Crusade Campaign for 2008 is Roam Fair. Background on this campaign is available here

In the latest development, a Parliamentary Inquiry has been announced with responses due by 15 August 2008
Click Here

“Anybody who has travelled overseas and used their mobile phone knows how useful it can be to reach loved ones and conduct business using international mobile roaming. They also know the significant cost they pay for this privilege. The House of Representatives Communications Committee is inquiring into whether international mobile roaming charges are fair. The Committee will look at:

• whether retail international mobile roaming charges reflect the underlying costs;
• whether the information available on international mobile roaming costs are adequate;
• whether new technologies and commercial initiatives will reduce international mobile roaming charges; and
• whether consumer information on international roaming is adequate.”

Members can write directly to the Committee to encourage them to act on reducing the costs. Contact the Committee Secretariat at coms.reps@aph.gov.au. In the meantime, tell us your war stories for ATUG’s submission to the House of Reps Communications Committee.

ATUG is planning to hold forums in each State during July to discuss the issues and impacts of international mobile roaming charges on end users.
Melbourne – 15^th July, The Naval and Military Club, 27 Little Collins Street, 4:30 to 6:30pm
Canberra – 17^th July,  National Press Club, 16 National Circuit, Barton 5:00 to 7:00pm
Newcastle – 24^th July,  JB Hunter Technology, Unit 3, 24 Portside Crescent, Maryville, 4:00 to 6:00pm
Sydney – 29^th July, The Sydney Room, City Tattersalls Club, Level 2, 198 - 204 Pitt Street Sydney, 4:00 to 6:00pm 
Brisbane – 29^th July, DLA Phillips Fox, Level 29, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle St, 5:30 to 7:30pm

To RSVP for an event, please email Patrick Sinclair at patrick.sinclair@atug.org.au

ATUG appreciates the support from our colleagues, TUANZ, from “across the ditch.” See their blog here

To post a comment please Click Here

Tags: International+Roaming, User+Forum, Mobile+Termination+Rates, Submission, Communications+Committee

Comments

[Rosemary Sinclair]

The Minister has released a report by KPMG which highlights concerns about excessive international mobile roaming charges. The Minister says
International mobile roaming charges have the potential to confuse consumers and result in expensive phone bills.
"International roaming charges are the subject of complaints where prices are high, making it very expensive to make mobile phone calls while overseas. This issue deserves attention particularly as mobile data services grow and businesses come to rely even more on cross-border access", Senator Conroy said.

The report is at http://www.dbcde.gov.au/communications_for_consumers/mobile_services/mobile_roaming

[Nyall Cairns]

It would be good if service providers had to show on the bill the cost of each portion of the call. i.e. local connection cost, international wholesaler cost and your provider cost.
This will allow the user to see where or who has the high chargers are associated with the call.

[Kate Schober]

One strategy to deal with the high cost of international roaming charges was the have a number of sim cards and advise everyone - what number and what country on what dates to call!

[Kate Schober]

Comment from a cXc - you can't get unlimited credit from the banks, without checking you can repay - why can carriers provide $2,000 or $17,000 credit by way of international roaming bills?

[Nick White]

INTUG has been lobbying for lower roaming charges since the last century and after 8 years of trying we finally got some regulation form the EU which imposed price caps on wholesale and retail voice roaming in Europe. To demonstrate how "competitive" they were, most mobile operators promptly reduced their wholesale rates to exactly equal the cap of €0.49c (did I hear the word cartel? - surely not) and some also changed the metering rate from per second to per minute, thus eroding much of the benefit. We are now pursuing reduced pricing for data and text roaming since data roaming hits the business community's ability to introduce mobile and wireless business process as they expand internationally. We need all the help we can get to persuade the operators who believe they are very hard done by. A final observation, have you seen the mobile termination rates in Europe - punitive and highly variable at €0.02 to €0.15 pm - we are pushing for cost-related pricing there too - it is a major barrier to entry for new operators - 3 paid the others €190m last year - poor old Kevin Russell

[Ben Creevey]

As a corporate customer we have many employees working and travelling abroad. It is not uncommon for several employees to experience bills in the ‘several thousands’ of dollars range. This is mostly due to the high costs of data roaming rates and a combination of PDA users who travel unknowing that the corporate emails will continue to trickle down, thus driving our costs sky high. A recent bill topped A$6,000 for a single employee who was “unaware” of the rates.

[Kate Schober ATUG]

I have been speaking to some members about the upcoming crossXconnects - the 2 worst "horror stories" have been a Blackberry bill for $17,000 for a few days and a mobile bill for $60,000!

[Lauren]

I have recently been doing some investigations with the approaching World Youth Day celebrations. Visitors from Italy whilst roaming in Oz will be charged anywhere between 1.67-3 euros per minute to call home and they will be charged around 2 euro a minute to receive a call from Mum or Dad.
If the shoe was on the other foot Australian users would be paying double the amount for the privilege of calling home from Italy???

[rosemary]

ATUG now has the bill information from our trip to new Zealand - a 2 minute call back to Australia cost $5.280. A 1 minute call from Australia TO New Zealand cost 70cents! The charges seem to ATUG to be completely distance INDEPENDENT!

[rosemary sinclair]

Some ATUG "heart stoppers" - 2 minutes to Australia in Belgium was $11; 4min 30seconds in France $14.849; 1 minute in UK was $3.299; SMS in France, Belgium and UK (9 different operators) was 50 cents everytime; 70 KB of data was $1.40 - that makes 1MB of data, $20!! A 1 minute call from Australia TO the UK by comparison is 70c. Interesting that the charging has to be by the minute but can appear on the bill to the third decimal place!!

[Chris]

In my experience getting a pre-paid SIM when you arrive is the way to go. Surely the Telco's realise we are avoiding roaming costs and would not if fees were more realistic. SIM locked phones are obviously a problem, and with the increasing use of 3G data these rates need to be addressed also - forgetting to disable your email sync is not bill shock, its instant heart attack!

[Steve]

I am with Telstra's NextG network. I recently travelled to NZ. Call rates are always expensive but this time I used the internet while in NZ, something that is effectively free in Australia given my limited use of it. 9 individual sessions cost a total of $70.44!!!

[sarah]

I made a 5 minute call home from Cambodia on Christmas day - $35!!

[Bob]

Currently on holidays in the USA. The easiest solution was to get a pre-paid AT&T sim and use that over here and just text back the temp number to the people who needed to know it.

Previously when I have visited New Zealand the only GSM option was Vodafone - and they were absolute rip-offs. They in fact were one of the worst roaming partner costs I have seen.

The biggest catch with International roaming is that you can drastically affect your bill by selecting the right carrier to roam on in the destination country. For example it is cheaper to use T-Mobile rather than AT&T in the USA. Finding this out however is not always easy and takes a while to study the charts due to the miriad of fees to add up when pricing what your final calls might cost you.

[Elizabeth Lawler]

My daughter and many flight attendant colleagues turn mobile phones off when leaving Australia. The first BILL SHOCK was enough!!!

[Dan]

To Three's credit, their "3 like Home" roaming is excellent, provided you are travelling in countries where 3 has a network. (The icing on the cake would be if 3 Like Home costs were included in the value of a cap plan).

But other Multi-nat providers in Australia do not do the same - eg Vodafone. A vodafone australia customer roaming on a vodafone network in Europe can, in some cases, pay more for a call than a non-vodafone customer roaming on that network!
Vodafone in Europe have a "Passport" option for their customers when they roam within Europe - equivalent to 3 Like Home. However, this passport is not available to Vodfone Australia.

[Paul Morris]

My wife and I went on a holiday to France and Italy for 1 month last June and the bill for the occasional phone calls back to the kids at home was $800!!!