...extended across the continent from 1 February.
T-Mobile's reaction was to welcome 3's move and echo Vodafone in saying it proved the industry did not need legislation to force down prices. "Anything which reduces prices for consumers is a good thing," T-Mobile's spokesperson said, before suggesting that the reason people are hesitant to use their phones abroad is not only a matter of it being expensive, but also due to a lack of transparency.
"What we did [lowering international roaming charges in 2006] was not just about reducing prices, it was about having flat-rate pricing across Europe and North America," the spokesperson said. "It's about keeping it simple. The net result of that and the proof it is working is that usage figures are way up — since we did this, a few months in, we saw usage increase by up to 50 percent in some countries."
T-Mobile's spokesperson also highlighted the fact that 3's deal leaves out many popular European destinations where 3 does not have networks. "If you roam onto someone else's network you revert to higher roaming rates. To me that's not transparent," said the spokesperson, adding: "This doesn't do the industry any good."
Interestingly, the spokesperson refused to deny that T-Mobile might follow 3's policy, and suggested that T-Mobile is looking at revising its data-roaming policy again. Last year a senior executive admitted the company was "screwing" its customers in this regard.
"Roaming is one of those issues which has become highly emotive in the customer base," said Gordon Rawling, portfolio product marketing manager at telecommunications CRM provider Amdocs, on Wednesday.
Rawling pointed out that operators have come under pressure not only from the European Commission, but also from consumer groups. "At the end of the day they can't afford that level of emotional dissatisfaction in the consumer base," he told ZDNet UK, describing 3's move as a natural continuation of recent trends towards lower roaming charges.
"We won't necessarily see one consistent approach [among operators], as in everybody going to 'free', but we will see everybody address the pressure with those kinds of packages," Rawling added. "Hopefully this will make it much more transparent [although] you can't get a lot more transparent than free, which is the approach that 3 have taken."
