Communications analyst Informa Telecoms & Media believes
that the failure of mobile operators to make voluntary
price cuts on SMS roaming before the July 1 deadline will lead
the European Commission to impose charge reductions/
In February this year, EU Commissioner Vivien Reding warned
operators that without the evidence of transparent and credible
data roaming tariffs from operators she would have no choice but to
propose more regulatory intervention.
Informa’s research, contained in a new report entitled
‘Global Mobile Roaming: Operator Strategies and Market Trends (3rd
edition)’ shows that, despite a last-minute flurry of tariff
changes from the likes of T-Mobile and Telefonica, SMS prices for
EU roamers are still up to three-quarters higher than in 2006.
Rates for non-messaging data roaming, however, fell 20% on
average over the same period and continue on a downward trend as
more operators launch bundled and day-rate packages.
“Considering the impetus behind the voice legislation introduced
last year, SMS roaming is without doubt a strong candidate for
another round of regulation” commented Angela Stainthorpe, research
analyst and author of the report. “Operators have been noticeably
willing to bend to the EU’s will regarding non-messaging data,
which includes mobile broadband services for laptop users, but have
left SMS to the mercy of the regulators.
“We believe that operators have taken the view that it is simply
not in their short term financial interest to cut the price of SMS
roaming, which already generates sizeable revenues, whereas mobile
broadband roaming is still in its infancy and operators need to cut
prices to start driving usage,” added Stainthorpe.
Informa speculated that data roaming will become good business
for operators with revenues from non-voice roaming by EU
subscribers travelling in the EU more than doubling between 2008
and 2013, reaching €1.1 billion by the end of the period. Although
SMS currently accounts for the majority of data roaming revenue in
Europe, Informa predicts revenues from non-messaging data roaming
to grow on average 26% per year against 7% annual growth in SMS
revenues.