Excessive data roaming charges, lack of transparency hurt adoption of mobile data plans
A study carried out for the European Commission reveals that Europeans are shocked by the extremely high charges they incur when they use their mobile phones and laptops for data access outside their home countries. They are also unhappy about the the lack of transparency related to the pricing by volume of data (megabytes) used.
Indeed, lack of transparency is a serious problem: most people don’t read the fine print on their mobile phone contracts. When the operators say they are selling you an unlimited, flat-rate data plan, it means only flat-rate in your home country and it comes with a data cap. So many people use their mobile data plans abroad thinking it’s unlimited and flat-rate, then at the end of the month, discover that they have to pay thousands of euros. It is very easy to fix this: prohibit carriers from using the words “flat rate” and “unlimited”.
Because the EU wants to encourage mobile data use, the European Commission will recommend that mobile data roaming rates be capped, just as they did with text messages last year. If the European Parliament approves this proposal, we will see lower data roaming rates within the EU next year. However, this almost certainly means that the mobile operators will increase what they charge for roaming outside the EU. No wonder people love Wi-Fi.
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