With the increased use of mobile devices as a primary means of communications, improved roaming services – including lower international roaming rates, improved quality of service and increased network access – have become key policy priorities for the ITU Member States.
International mobile roaming is an important area of work for ITU-T Study Group 3 (Question 7/3 under study). ITU-T Recommendation D.98 on Charging in international mobile roaming service approved in 2012 recognized that Member States, regulators and consumers continue to express concern about the high level of charges incurred when roaming internationally and especially in the case of 'bill shock' (i.e., a bill which the consumer finds unexpectedly excessive).
ITU-T D.98 further notes that international roaming is a multi-country issue by nature. The issues involved and their degree vary from region to region, and also within regions, in terms of economics, market structures and regulatory frameworks. Since there is no guarantee that unilateral action by one national regulatory authority in its country will on its own lead to reciprocal action in other countries benefitting their users, cooperation between regulators and policy makers either bilaterally or within a region is likely to be more effective than unilateral action by one national regulatory authority.
In some parts of the world, just leaving a mobile phone’s data connection active can result in significant costs to the consumer. Travelers have often adopted the strategy of switching-off mobile devices or limiting calls to a bare minimum to avoid incurring roaming charges. Travellers may even resort to “plastic roaming”, buying a new SIM card when entering a foreign country.
How might National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) encourage the offer of more affordable roaming charges? The first step is to understand the real costs of providing roaming services. The ITU Membership as early as 2013 requested that ITU develop a cost model on international mobile roaming through its ITU-T Study Group 3.
In 2015, ITU-T SG3 agreed on a Technical Paper on the costs incurred by mobile network operators (MNOs) in their provision of IMR services. This Technical Paper reflects the market’s realities and its structure. Most importantly, the paper takes a neutral stance with respect to technologies in service and the individual MNO business model and its business processes. The model attempts to answer the following question:
Do the requirements for technical infrastructure necessarily cause roaming costs to be higher – and, if so, by how much?
The ITU-T Technical Paper on mobile roaming cost analysis can assist regulators in their efforts to create an enabling environment for fair and affordable tariffs for international mobile-roaming services. The new technical guide is accompanied by an online tool which provides a model to calculate the costs to operators of providing mobile-roaming voice services.
Click here for the Online Tool for International Mobile Roaming Cost Analysis.
In 2016, WTSA-16 approved a new international standard Recommendation ITU-T D.97 on “methodological principles for determining international mobile roaming rates”.
The Study Group also launched new areas of work on M2M and IoT roaming.
