T-Mobile Exec Speaks the Truth About Data Roaming
Filed in archive Mobile Technologies by on July 06, 2006
at the Mobility Summit, which ended in London yesterday. Chris asked T-Mobile head of operator's enterprise strategy Ed Williams if, despite having an £8.50 all-you-can-eat data tariff for the UK, the company doesn't screw its customers who roam while using data services, according to ZDNet UK, Williams replied, "Completely screw them, yes." Williams later said he was kidding when he made the comment, and that T-Mobile would be cutting its data roaming charges later this year. Well, they will now. T-Mobile and its brethren operators all charge over the odds for data roaming, and make a good percentage of their data revenues from this activity, according to Chris. ZDNet says that these operators charge anywhere from £10.28 per MB for roaming to T-Mobile's £6.38 per MB. Excuses have been made that "the industry is adapting as fast as it can," but why stop a good thing when you don't feel the pressure?
Chris' analysis, which I heartily agree with, is that IP-based services won't flourish as long as customers are punished for using them. Flat-rate data must go international, particularly in areas such as Europe where roaming is often a case of traveling a few miles across a border.
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