R140,000 Bill: ‘Roaming is a bitch’

International roaming charges have been a bone of contention to many South African travelers, and despite numerous proactive steps from Vodacom, MTN and Cell C to lower the costs of roaming, the charges are still exorbitant in many cases.

Cellular subscribers typically blame their local mobile provider for the high costs, but the anger about high roaming charges may be better directed at the international roaming partners rather than the local operators.

Speaking at the recent MyBroadband conference, Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys explained that they merely pass the bill sent to them by their international roaming partner on to the subscriber.  This was in response to a question about the exorbitant voice and data costs while roaming internationally.

At the same event Cell C CEO Lars P. Reichelt delved deeper into the issue of roaming charges, backing it up with a real-world example and explaining exactly where the problem lies.

Reichelt said that a recent two week trip to Europe became very costly after he racked a roaming bill for R140 000 by doing little more than email while traveling.

“You don’t want to roam with a very high speed network. I did it two months ago…I just did email, and I had a bill of R140 000,” said Reichelt.  “Roaming is a bitch.”

International problems

It is definitely not only South Africans grappling with the problem of high international roaming charges.

The European Commission had to fight telecoms giants in Europe to put a price cap on roaming charges in the European Union. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in June this year that the European Commission was doing the right thing to set price caps on mobile roaming charges.

“[The] Court ruling is significant because it confirms the Commission’s view that legislation of this type was necessary and that the EU was entitled to impose limits on the prices charged by mobile operators for roaming calls in the interest of the EU’s Single Market,” the European Commission said.

These price caps however do not apply to non-EU residents and operators, which means that international travelers to the EU countries still face still roaming bills – and there does not seem to be an easy solution.

Reichelt explained that not much can be done about the high roaming charges because “it is a cartel.” Reichelt said that Cell C is working on something, but that it is “very difficult.”

The Cell C CEO advised international travelers to rather just purchase a connection from a local operator which will save the subscriber from the potential risk of a very high roaming bill.

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