EU Roaming Regulation: Roaming is alive!

Roaming is not dead as you will hear some people say… Roaming is alive, it has been you could say, resuscitated today. Today is after all the launch of the regulation in the EU which bans Roaming charges.

For many years we have been told about the decline of roaming. People who left the field of roaming to do other things because Roaming is no longer interesting. And yet in meetings I had with vendors only last week (companies holding onto real data) the talk was of growth. People have heard mention of even 900% growth in EU Roaming that we might anticipate.

The EU with its 28 member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway which from today no longer have roaming charges, have (no matter what the European Parliament will tell you) a more important need than ever before for the complex and costly roaming architecture offered by MNOs to offer the RLAH tariffs. Except now, because MNOs don’t have as many revenues as before, they must seek efficiencies and they will start to come in and in all kinds of shapes and forms. There is much work to do to bring quality and modernity to the roaming space, including even maybe one day further Internet of Things developments (despite eSIM) and 5G.

When we consider that all the countries of the world still have roaming charges we can see Roaming is Alive. Ok Europe is a peak destination for the world but the world does not have cuts in Roaming charges. Just these 31 countries between each other.

For many years silent roaming has dominated, the idea of Bill shock has stopped people from roaming and being productive while they travel. Now EU citizens have an opportunity to be even more productive than they were before. We won’t even think about connecting to the insecure wi-fi in hotels and cafes and this is already happening. Quality and security will be our new focus.

We’re entering into a new chapter for Roaming and it’s a massive growth chapter. Roaming Revenues are still out there and they are everywhere. People are not only travelling in Europe. If you are working in an Mobile Operator in an EU Member state you will know, people no longer just travel in Europe, nor have they ever done so. But these days with the rise of travel in general which increases 3.5% YOY Roaming is growing and Europeans are international in their travel plans. They are also open, now that MNOs charge less for Roaming, in understanding what more they can do.

Roaming is more alive than it has ever been before. So go on make the most out of the new tariffs and explore them. Now we have a chance to see what we can really do with it.

If you want to know more about the EU Roaming Regulation watch our little video, we are delighted to be in this ever evolving and amazing telecoms space.

Jason Bryan CEO ROCCO

https://youtu.be/vPwSGlMy7aQ