Carriers Must End Absurd Intl Data Roaming Fees, Before Apple Does It for Them

https://medium.com/@salsita/carriers-need-to-end-absurd-international-data-roaming-charges-5cb808343ee1

by mgertner • 12 years ago

2 2 12 years ago

Of course there is no real technical justification for roaming data charges that are many multiples of domestic prices.

No, but there are "technical justification" for why they charge more: It costs them more.

Operating on a first party cell tower is significantly cheaper than operating on someone else's as a guest. Not only in the literal sense, but also the cost of tracking it, and setting up the contracts initially in 190+ countries.

However things are improving massively in the last few years. T-Mobile in the US now gives you free international roaming at 56K modem speeds (no overage), and 4G speeds for only a relatively small fee. AT&T's data roaming packages (that now include unlimited texts) aren't bad either.

mgertner• 12 years ago

Fair point about setup costs, but the marginal cost (which is what really counts over the long term) is negligeable in both cases.

Things are improving as I say in the piece, but it's worth noting that here in the Czech Republic I still have to pay nearly $200 for a month of data roaming in the US with a 200Mb cap. And that's if I go to the trouble of signing up for a special roaming plan, otherwise I could easily spent 10x that.

Carriers Must End Absurd Intl Data Roaming Fees, Before Apple Does It for Them

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