World’s roaming bill hits USD 50 billion — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Asia Pac operators gaining on Europe as most valuable roaming market} World’s roaming bill hits USD 50 billion

30 Sep 2004 at 16:57 GMT Timo Poropudas

Roaming revenue of the Asia Pacific region is growing at faster rate than the leading European market. GSM industry figures confirmed the region accounted for some 40 per cent of the global mobile subscriber base – a share which would put its roaming revenues at an estimated USD 20 billion annually.

The revenue figures are based on research from global roaming specialists Roamware. The company’s research, supported by official industry figures and growth trends, puts the total value of global roaming revenues at some USD 50 billion annually. Asia Pac’s share of the market is seen to be second only to Europe in size and value.

India and China lead

What’s more, the Asia Pac region – and the markets in India and China in particular – are growing at a faster rate than their European counterparts and Roamware is seeing increasing evidence of the use of roaming services in the region both in terms of in-bound visitors and outbound roamers.

Speaking at the 3GSM Asia Congress in Singapore, Roamware CEO John Hoffman told delegates that securing the right roaming partnerships and services with global network operators can help home operators retain a greater share of the revenue generated by roaming traffic.

“The days when service levels for roaming were based on luck have long gone. Operators looking for the loyalty from visitors as well as from their own customers traveling abroad need to consider their own, and their partner networks, as a top level facility for customers,” Hoffman said.

One tenth of the total GSM operator revenue

Over the years many attempts have been made to value the global roaming market. Roamware’s own research and experience from its global operator customer base, estimates from the GSM Association, and figures from the CDMA Development Group however all point to a roaming value of around ten per cent of total mobile subscriber revenues.

Based on a variety of sources and methods, Roamware puts the global roaming market currently at USD 50bn annually – a figure which can be supported not only from industry growth, but also from total operator revenues. Today, the GSM market alone numbers more than one billion with operator revenues forecast to hit USD 500billion by the end of this year.