Dave Parker MVP:
Todd Allcock: Given the ease of travel and geography of the European continent, I suspect roaming fees are a significant portion of an operators' revenue, at least compared to here in the USA, and no company likes to see a governmental body slaughter a cash cow!
Interestingly, and I can't back this up with any facts and figures, I'm not sure I'd agree entirely. Most people, and businesses for that matter, are actively discouraged from using their mobiles abroad because of the high roaming costs. At my own workplace workers on European travel are only encouraged to sync mobiles (pick up email) a couple of times a day and to keep calls to a minimum. Vodafone UK, obviously with the knowledge of the impending legislation, have made a big thing of giving UK holiday makers these rates in advance and publisising it as a holiday special. I understand it's been a very popular promotion. Maybe this will actually increase the revenue from roaming communication.
I don't have any facts and figures either, and haven't been to Europe in the "cell phone era" so I'll happily take your word for it!
That's certainly an interesting observation- if reduced roaming rates actually get people to use their phones abroad rather than be afraid to turn them on unless there's an emergency, this certainly could increase roaming revenue for all carriers rather than decrease it.
I've never understood why European carriers that operate in more than one country, like Voda or T-Mobile, don't create "pan-European" plans to get a leg up on their competiton. Or for that matter, why T-Mobile in the USA doesn't leverage its parent company to offer lower (or even "free" roaming on other T-Mobile networks in Europe and vice-versa. As the 4th-place carrier, you'd think T-Mo would trade a few bucks in international roaming revenue (which, like you say, is mostly a bunch of travelers going out of their way NOT to use their phones!) for the giant competitive advantage this would give them over AT&T, America's largest GSM carrier. They could steal a lot of AT&T's Euro-traveler business customers, who'd probably willingly "trade down" to T-Mo's weaker domestic coverage in order to get free or reduced-rate European roaming.
But, alas, T-Mo never asks my advice. I am willing, however to offer my consulting services to them for free, as long as Catherine Zeta-Jones, (who recently returned as their advertising spokesperson,) is in attendence at all meetings... 