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Budde: telcos will ‘milk it’ on transtasman roaming for years to come

Pack a lunch.Transtasman mobile roaming regulation could take two or three years.That's the message from Sydney-based market analyst Paul Budde, who has close connections to the Australian government.The Australian and New Zealand governments have launche

Chris Keall
Fri, 24 Sep 2010

Pack a lunch.

Transtasman mobile roaming regulation could take two or three years.

That’s the message from Sydney-based market analyst Paul Budde, who has close connections to the Australian government.

The Australian and New Zealand governments have launched a joint investigation into the sky-high price of mobile phone roaming when visiting either country. Also under the microscope: the way roaming rates are presented to customers.

Yesterday, Vodafone NZ halved its data rate for customers using a device in Australia – but at $5 a megabyte (or $5000 a gigabyte) it’s still dizzying, meaning an unsuspecting traveller can easily rack up hundreds of dollars from regular web surfing – or thousands if they tether to a laptop.

Vodafone also introduced a new txt warning system will see customers receive alert at 2MB, 5MB and 10MB to avoid bill shock.

Communications Minster Steven Joyce, and his counterpart in Australia Senator Stephen Conroy, have made no secret of the fact they think roaming rates are exorbitant.

“Yes, regulation will follow,” Mr Budde told NBR. But it could take two or three or years, and the phone companies know it and will exploit this situation.

“They want to milk this lucrative arrangement for as long as possible.”

Certainly, there’s no doubt that Mr Joyce has the resolve to regulate (as with mobile termination rates), as does Senator Conroy (on just about everything).

But it’s also true that the MTR investigation took a good half decade (or longer, depending on how you look at it), and it still hasn’t reached the point where rates are actually regulated.

Already, the transtasman roaming process has been moving, slowly, for more than a year (Mr Joyce and Senator Conroy first discussed the subject in June 2009).

And, once the MED and the ACC reach a consensus, it will have to be sold to politicians on both sides of the Tasman as both Australian and New Zealand telecommunications legislation is amended. Even if everyone agrees, on every single point, the logistics will keep the bureaucrats in Wellington and Canberra tied up in months, or years, or appointment swapping.

Hopefully Steven & Stephen will prove Mr Budde wrong, and pave the way for more transtasman cooperation by quickly and efficiently wrapping up the roaming investigation, ignoring the inevitable telco attempts to divert or delay.

Long-suffering business travellers and tourists will hope so.

But don’t hold your breath.

Chris Keall
Fri, 24 Sep 2010
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Budde: telcos will ‘milk it’ on transtasman roaming for years to come
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