Despite the increasing adoption of the digital lifestyle and the addiction to “always on” connectivity, customers who travel abroad are still limited in their usage of mobile devices because of uncertainty around roaming costs and fear of bill shock. However, Ovum predicts that roaming mobile data holds a big opportunity for service providers who succeed in overcoming these barriers.
Roaming is clashing with the digital lifestyle
Digital lifestyle is becoming the norm. People have multiple devices allowing them to maintain their digital lifestyle even on vacations: sharing experiences, photos and keeping posted their social media profiles, as well as staying connected to their workplace.
However, a 2014 European Commission survey found that 94% of Europeans who travel outside their country limit their use of Facebook and other similar services due to roaming charges, and 47% would never use mobile Internet in another country. More recently, a Telecompaper paper found that 37% of respondents turn off data roaming when they go abroad, preferring to rely on free Wi-Fi hotspots. This is obviously in contradiction to the growing digital lifestyle reality.
Ovum predicts: data roaming is the biggest opportunity
According to Ovum’s Mobile Roaming Forecast Report, 2014-2019 (released October 2014), global revenues from mobile roaming are set to grow at a CAGR of 6% by 2019, with mobile data the largest contributor to global roaming. As service providers continue to expand LTE network coverage and introducing services such as audio and video streaming, and VoLTE, customers are expected to enjoy the same services and the same quality of experience everywhere, whether they are at home or are overseas. However, recent pricing regulations in Europe (one of the largest roaming markets) might slow revenue growth despite these predictions.
What can service providers do to overcome these barriers?
Let customers control their roaming expenses. Service providers can lower customer concerns about the uncertainty of roaming costs by letting customers decide when, for how long, for how much and how many devices they would like to connect while they are abroad. Time based roaming or data only roaming plans for a defined period of time spent abroad can help service providers ensure their customers that their roaming expenses will not exceed their planned budget. Globe, for example, offers their postpaid customers 24 hours of unlimited mobile surfing while roaming for a flat rate of only PHP599. In that way, Globe`s customers will not be surprised with the roaming charges when they return from their vacation.
Allow customers to expand their digital activities beyond borders. WhatsApp, Facebook and other apps hold a central place in our daily activities. According to Amdocs Customer Experience Spotlight 2015, 45% of customers worldwide say they constantly update their social network profile page with any thought they have, or about any event they are involved in. To motivate customers to use roaming while abroad, service providers can adopt an app-based approach, providing WhatsApp and/or Facebook oriented roaming packages. Three Hong Kong’s WhatsApp Roaming Pass, for example, allows customers freely use WhatsApp and its features across 153 destinations and 216 networks worldwide for a fixed daily fee of HKD$48. Ooredoo Oman launched “Email Everywhere,” a roaming data bundle for business customers. This package allows customers to send and receive up to 2,500 average-sized emails or the equivalent data using WhatsApp, or any combination of the two.
Free consumers from worries about additional roaming costs by including it in the standard bundle. The two most common approaches to deal with these worries – discarding roaming altogether by incorporating roaming services into home plans (“all inclusive”) or "roam-like-home" plans – allow customers to use mobile services at the same rate they used them at home. For example, Free Mobile France is offering an inclusive bundle of unlimited calls, texts, and 3G mobile internet plus roaming across Europe for a single price of €19.99 per month. Vodafone UK, on other hand, provides customers with the freedom to take UK minutes, texts and data anywhere within the Europe Zone.