[Ben]

Caught this on News 24 the other day, I see the BBC have also put up the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8576941.stm

Basically the theme is that the data roaming rip-off is still well and truly cemented into the experience of travelling abroad. The new EU limits are discussed, but will they actually lead to cheaper data or just less data use? It wouldn't surprise me if the operators are satisfied with the latter! So long as punters hit the limit then surely the less data they use in the process the better, right? We'll see...

The article mentions push services and how they can impact data roaming charges without their users even knowing. It gives an iPhone-specific example of how to turn off data roaming. Personally I think that little switch is ingenious - when I was last out of the country it was very convenient to just flick data roaming on when I needed it and then back off when I wanted the mugging to end.

[solo12002]

Pain in ass I know, But if you want cheap roaming including calls a data, ill always go for a local sim card i never use mine. Only time I did was to south of Irland and itlay on three and even then it was taken out of of my allowance.

Last year I went to poland and took a Vodafone PAYG sim card as there was no roaming charges during that period.

[Hands0n]

One has to wonder what it will take for the GSMA and its cartel members to understand the dynamics of selling to the masses. They do seem stuck in that mental timewarp that goes back to a time when it was very unusual to see anyone walking around with a mobile handset. Even rarer that the handset would be theirs and not owned by the firm they worked for.

The time for selling services at premium, and thus punitive, rates is well over. If they can just get that into their thick skulls we may well see much more reasonable priced mobile data use when people roam, and the mobile network operators would reap in the rewards. Exactly as they have done when forced to cap their voice call and text tariffs. They squealed like stuck pigs then, but you don't hear them complaining now with ARPU going through the ceiling and unprecedented profits in the face of a global recession.