Roaming charges — the bane of phone-wielding travellers everywhere. While using your phone via your local carrier in places like the US or Europe will remain an expensive affair for the foreseeable future, the Australian and NZ governments are at least seeking to slash roaming charges for cross-Tasman sojourns.
According to a Saturday piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, the two governments are to embark on a “joint action” that will task service providers with lowering their roaming charges. If said providers do not cooperate, new legislation will give regulators, such as the ACCC, the power to force the issue.
This all comes from a meeting held yesterday in New Zealand’s Queenstown, located on the country’s southern island.
There aren’t any details at the moment regarding when this dual assault will deliver results or the specific capabilities regulators will be given, but we’ll be keeping an eye on future developments.
[SMH]
Image: Luciano Belviso / Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0
OK so lets look at this for a second. The Australian and New Zeland Governments is going to task Telstra and co with forcing service providers in the likes of the US and Europe to drop the fees they charge forign carriers to use their network?
Gizmodo has done a "Why Using Your Phone In Another Country Costs So Much"
http://gizmodo.com/5538578/giz-explains-why-using-your-phone-in-another-country-costs-so-much
At the end of the day it makes the governments look good to say "we're going to stick it to them". But at the end of the day there is going to be SFA either can do about it. They can't force a publicly traded company run at a loss. At the end of the day, all Telstra and co will do is block international roaming alltogether. Its not a requirement of their licence.
I seriously question your motivation when your perspective says things like "Run at a loss". Telstra charges $2.42 per min in roaming charges to call from Thailand to Australia. I can buy a local SIM in Thailand that will allow me to make the exact same call for well under 10 cents per minute.
I'm pretty sure that Telstra has some room to move before their publicly traded company goes broke!
I'm pretty sure tonyintsv is talking about foreign carriers in the USA etc, after all they are the ones who pass the costs back to your provider.
Local carriers (and hence our Government) don't set the prices in foreign countries, so really this is nothing but hot air. There is no way our local carriers are going to simply absorb these costs.
The carrier in Thailand charges Telstra $2.42/min give or take due to the extra cost of having to contact telstra, verify that your phone is a) not stolen b) not suspended c) permited to make the call before you.
If you had read the article I posted it explains it all.
They're only lowering roaming cost between AU and NZ - "slash roaming charges for cross-Tasman sojourns". Nothing to do with US and Europe carriers.
2 phrases from the article which taken together put a shadow on your assumtion.
"to investigate and take action over roaming prices, including potential price caps."
AND
"The deal could pave the way to lowering roaming costs with other countries, such as the United States and European Union."
Looks to me like they're going to use this legislation to force telcos to do it to all countries.
Also, just as an asside note. If your too stupid to check the costs before you go overseas, how is that the fault of the phone company?
My sister in law is a travel agent. Her company actually warn customers about the cost of using a mobile from Australia overseas. They put pamphlets from a selection of carriers from the country the person is traveling to in their itinery.
Even if the costs are inflated, they are always going to be higher than the cost of buying a sim from the country to use. Always.
The government trying to look productive by forcing companies to make less money. Yep, welcome to the socialist republic of Australis. Perhaps Gillard can go the the US and tell AT&T how to suck eggs too. Maybe she can tell the banks to stop ripping off its customers too, oh wait, they tried that. Maybe they can tell the petrol companies to stop gouging us too, with say a petrol watc,…… Oh wait, they tried that too. How about they tell Coles and Woolies to end price fixing with a grocery watch, oh wait………. Hmmm, yep, sounds like another successful plan in the making. Good job labor, good job. Fiddle while Rome (or roaming) burns.
"socialist republic of Australis"?? Seriously? Get some perspective.
Perhaps you should actually read the article. This has nothing to do with AT&T or the US. It is a cross-Tasman agreement. Get out a map and find out what the means instead of spewing your ignorance and belly aching. This potential agreement has nothing to do with Coles and Woolies. It will be a government to government agreement regarding regulation of telcos.
Another thing this agreement won't do is cure cancer. Does that mean it's waste of time?
How about, after this goes through, you keep paying the stupidly high roaming rates next time you cross the Tasman and the rest of us benefit from the agreement.
Vodafone already only charges local rates for customers who go to NZ or Singapore. It's called Vodafone Traveler and it takes one phone call to activate it.
And unlike Vodafone in Australia, you will actually have good reception and service in New Zealand and Singapore.
Lol. My signal in Oz is better than I was getting on Optus hence why I switched. Best move I ever made :)
Ill believe it when i see it... Just like the petrol watchdog is meant to be making petrol prices lower... Its all bullcrap.
If you don't buy a local sim, then you deserve to pay $10 per megabyte for mobile data with telstra.
This is Price gouging at its finest...
There is NO real cost involved in making an international call....
Skype and other non-network VoIP providers pushed the Price down for all carriers, Note: they have all been using VoIP for years, as all phone calls in a digital world travel as data anyhow, not actual "voice signals". The excuse, passing on the "Costs of International carriers" are always a gag...
If you can get a data-plan for next to nothing, and at the same time they are charging huge premiums for a voice plan, its a little messed up.... It is all using the same network (though they will tell you different).
AS above, when in foreign countries always get a local SIM, at least then you will only be paying local call origination costs, rather than roaming.. Of course it gets difficult in Europe changing countries every couple of days.... Then, Keep your phone for emergencies only, and use a local internet cafe, or if you have a locked phone, get an unlocked local one.... OR.. Suffer without for a few days, it may ho you a world of good to be offline, AFK, IRL or whatever you wish to call it...
Please tell me of a Telco CEO who isn't rolling in clover....
Except for the fact that the carrier in the country you are in has to contact the carrier on teh country you are from, confirm that the phone is not stolen, that it is active and able to make the call you are wanting to make.
SO are you saying that it actually takes a phone call to make those checks... don't be a goose, it is all automated, and online...
Yep, Your Telco. has a Contract, with the one in a foreign country, and guess what, the contract is reciprocal.... The world of telecommunications is one of multi dimensional 2-way contracts negotiated in a cartel like manner, where all protest that negotiations are in private, and blame the foreign operator for any increased costs... It cuts both ways...
The world communicated via multiple internet type pipelines between all countries, the connections are always-on, and there is no costs associated with any particular individual call...
The time has come for NO global (or regional) roaming charges, and no metering of usage (throttle unreasonably large volume traffic)... Call charges are a relic of times when the operator had to connect each line manually and the number of lines were definitely finite.