Connect with us

Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website. .

Top Stories

THE ABOLISHMENT OF EU ROAMING CHARGES: AN OPPORTUNITY OR THREAT FOR OPERATORS?
abolishment

Published : , on

Mário Rosas, Product Architect for Roaming & Interconnect at WeDo Technologies

Mário Rosas

Mário Rosas

No one wants to return home from their holidays to a sky-high bill after using their mobile abroad. With international demand from consumers for roaming services continuing to grow at a rapid rate, serious investment is now required by operators to expand their offering while adopting a more sophisticated approach to customer service to ensure they’re able to remain competitive.

Following two years of protracted negotiations, the EU recently confirmed that roaming charges are set to be abolished in 2017, enabling businessmen and holidaymakers to call, SMS and surf the Internet at lower local prices.  Consumers greeted the end of these charges, which were widely considered to be in conflict with many telecom operators’ ‘customer first’ ethos. Additionally, before we see the end of roaming charges in June 2017, there will be a price drop from May this year, where each voice call will have a maximum cost of €0.05 per minute per call, €0.02 per SMS, and €0.05 per megabyte of data; already offering consumers a more reasonable price compared to what was previously in practice.

Operators, however, have argued that by abolishing this revenue stream, governments are putting telcos under increased pressure at a time when profit margins are tight following the effects of the previous shake up of roaming regulation. Several operators have even gone as far as to state that these measures act as a barrier to the progression and innovation of the telecoms sector. They argue that the abolishment will limit MNO investment capacity, thus lowering the overall quality of the service and consequently increasing the total costs of service (both domestically and overseas).

In actual fact, these expensive roaming charges can in themselves contribute towards considerable revenue loss for the telecoms sector. As a result of the substantial roaming costs, many operators have failed to acknowledge that it is now common to see travellers to Europe turning off their mobile data (indeed, newer smartphones have the option to go into ‘travel mode’, which disables mobile data and cellular signal), buying local network SIM cards or simply limiting their use to OTT apps on local Wi-Fi connections.

Interestingly, these developments could also be viewed as a solution to the wider threat that these telecom companies face from the competition of OTT players.  It is no secret that the rise of Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber, has curtailed the amount of data travelling through operators, with the telecommunications industry set to lose a combined $386 billion between 2012 and 2018. Bill shock, the negative reaction a subscriber can experience if their phone bill has unexpected charges, has also always been seen as an obstacle in providing users with a ‘customer first’ approach; however telco operators can use the recent change in regulations as an opportunity to rebuild confidence with their users, without seeking alternatives based on WI-FI, to reduce or eliminate bill shock and follow the truly ‘customer first’ ethos that many of them espouse. This is something we’ve with TELUS Canada, who, by giving their customers real-time visibility of roaming, were able to build trust and provide a better overall service to their subscribers.

To prevent customer churn, operators must now use this new legislation as an opportunity to reinvent their roaming business and guarantee that this traffic remains in their networks. To achieve this, they will need to:

  • Explore new LTE based networks that provide better reliability and quality of service
  • Implement strong revenue assurance processes to prevent revenue leakage and roaming fraud and thus provide more resources to improve services
  • Focus on deals and bundles with roaming partners to entice roaming visitors in the home network and secure the best wholesale prices when visiting partner networks
  • Apply a combined strategy for wholesale, retail and interconnection to minimise costs and maximise revenues

With so much to be gained from unlocking opportunities associated with roaming, the first operator to act will surely have a considerable advantage to the competition.

Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.

Global Banking & Finance Review

 

Why waste money on news and opinions when you can access them for free?

Take advantage of our newsletter subscription and stay informed on the go!


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Recent Post