Press And Media

Roaming enters the mainstream as part of a larger product bundle, reveals latest edition of the Tariff Consultancy Ltds Global Roaming Tariff Tracker update

Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL) has released the latest edition of the TCL Global Roaming Tariff Tracker subscription service based on a survey of 86 MNOs in 60 countries worldwide and sheds light on the complex pricing for Mobile Roaming worldwide.  

The latest edition of the Global Roaming Tariff Tracker shows the impact of the EU roaming regulation on roaming tariffs within Europe, with speculation that roaming within selected regions – such as within the Benelux – will cease to exist as a result of regulatory pressure.

Key roaming trends identified in the Q1 2013 TCL Tariff Tracker include the following:

•  More MNOs are now including roaming bundles as part of a premium Pay Monthly tariff plan - particularly inEurope.

• There remains a huge range of pricing for Data roaming standard pricing worldwide –Data roaming pricing in the survey varies from Euro 0.43 per MB up to over Euro 21 per MB.

•  More bundles are now offered by MNOs for Mobile Data roaming than for Voice roaming – the survey now includes over 400 Mobile Data roaming bundles offered by the MNOs but less than half the number of Voice roaming bundles.

• Most bundles are provided for Daily, Weekly & Monthly durations – but increasingly operators look for differentiation and launch durations of shorter than a day, 3 days as well as longer than monthly durations.

• Data roaming bundles all have various pricing worldwide:

                              Average                Lowest priced              Highest priced

Daily                  Euro 7.79              Euro 0.55                    Euro 42.88

Weekly                Euro 26.99            Euro 0.55                    Euro 113.54

               Monthly               Euro 88.18             Euro 1.18                    Euro 1,51
                 (these are prices per data roaming bundle offer, inclusive allowances vary)

•  Mobile Data bundles are gradually increasing – over the last quarter the average Mobile Data bundle has increased in terms of inclusive allowance from 162 MB to 186 MB (the equivalent of Euro 0.96 per MB) by Q1 2013.

• Voice Data roaming bundles cost an average of Euro 18.86 - offer an average of 93 minutes usage per bundle with an average price in the bundle of Euro 0.45 per minute. 

The TCL Global Roaming Tariff Tracker provides a unique insight into the changes taking place in roaming tariffs since February 2007 and has been updated every quarter since. Every quarter TCL has continued to develop the survey with roaming products from more countries and MNOs worldwide.

Margrit Sessions, the Managing Director of TCL, summarises the changes in global roaming seen in this edition of the Global Roaming Tariff Tracker - “Over the last quarter period the Global Roaming Tariff Tracker shows that selected European MNOs are now bundling roaming in with premium Pay Monthly products for a smartphone to protect a price point. InEurope, due to regulatory intervention, the MNO has to devise a new pricing model for roaming and is becoming more creative in how it combines roaming with other services”.

Note to the Editor

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About the TCL Global Roaming Tariff Tracker – The TCL Global Roaming Tariff Tracker is a subscription service published every quarter (4 times a year). It consists of a PDF summary of changes every quarter and also an excel spreadsheet format with pricing that can be manipulated in Euro or local currencies. It provides pricing for Voice and Data roaming for 86 MNOs in 60 countries. The service costs £2,495 GBPs for a single user licence including quarterly updates and customer support.  

About Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL) – TCL is a London-based pricing research and consultancy organisation that provides a range of Tracker services for mobile (including the Mobile Africa Tariff Tracker, Fixed line Broadband Tariff Tracker and the Global LTE Tariff Tracker) and Data Centre services. It also provides a series of once off reports and monthly SnapShot reports on a series of pricing issues. Further information is available on the TCL website at www.telecomspricing.com