US roaming bills up 15% — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Average charge reaches USD 14 in Q3} US roaming bills up 15%

18 Dec 2005 at 08:00 GMT Timo Poropudas

The latest data from Telephia’s Customer Value Metrics report shows cell phone subscribers paid 15 percent more in roaming charges to nearly USD 14 in Q3 2005, as compared to just a little over USD 12 in Q1 2005. Average roaming rates remained consistent at USD .22 per minute, but the average number of minutes spent roaming increased by seven minutes to 62 minutes during the summer.

“Gone are the days when consumers take a vacation and leave all forms of communications at home,” said Tamara Gaffney, Product Director, Telephia.

“Cell phones allow vacationers to stay in touch in case of emergencies or to check on the kids. And with the proliferation of camera-ready phones, consumers are able to send instant postcards while on holiday.”

“Compared to hotel phone charges or using pay phones, mobile phones generally offer much better rates when traveling. However, unexpected roaming charges still surprise many consumers at the end of the month,” added Gaffney.

Voice roaming charges vary per plan type, with local or regional plans having the highest average roaming charges — as much as USD 18 more than national plans. According to Telephia, average local or regional plan roaming charges were USD 30.69, as compared to USD 22.85 for national anywhere1 plans and USD 12.39 for national in-network2 plans. Local and regional plans also had the highest rate of subscribers charged for roaming, at 7.4 percent.