girlwhowaspluggedout writes:
"The European Commission reports that, fearing high roaming charges, many EU citizens forgo the use of their mobile phones outside their home country. According to a survey done by the Commission (pdf), when travelling to another EU country, 90% of all EU citizens limit their e-mail use, 47% do not use their mobile internet connection, 33% never place calls, 25% do not text, and a staggering 28% simply turn off their mobile phones.
Roaming charges, the Commission suggests, are hurting the fledgling EU app sector. In trying to avoid paying data premiums, travelers limit their use of data-heavy apps, like travel guides, maps, and photo applications. Frequent travelers are even more likely to turn-off their phones, perhaps due to being better informed about the costs of data roaming.
The Commission reports that data roaming use across the EU has increased by 1500% since the introduction of price caps in 2008. It suggests that by eliminating all roaming charges, mobile providers will gain a further 300 million customers. These findings give further support to regulations proposed by the Commission that will create a single mobile phone market throughout the EU, enabling all customers to enjoy domestic rates when travelling within the EU."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Nesh on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:44AM
Let us see the customer case for roaming and data-use while roaming.
(International) companies that give their employees a cell-phone don't have much alternative besides paying up. Switching to a VOIP solution where there is a WiFi connection helps a bit but tends to yield bad VOIP quality where the internet connection is too slow and/or saturated.
For everyone else that pays their own bills: the cost isn't worth it.
When I'm on holiday I just switch my mobile to airplane mode.
Uploading pictures or reading/sending mails and messages can be done where there's WiFi (hotel,etc.). Texting/SMS is on the way out anyway.
Off-line Openstreetmap data for navigation is great and also works out in the sticks where cell reception might be spotty or non-existent.
Roaming used to be outrageously expensive. Non-technical users got bitten by huge bills (usually caused by data usage while roaming).
We learned to do without expensive roaming and there's no incentive to start using it now.