Why mobile roaming prices are insanely expensive

You don't have to make use of roaming. Just buy a prepaid sim in the country you visiting, it is much more affordable that way, even when you want to communicate back home.
 
Just make use of Wi-Fi(hotspots) or alternatively do war driving, tons are available in Europe, US, and freely accessible from neighborhoods etc.

I went abroad and just for the sim card they wanted to charge me R400, I said fk it. Switched on my WI-FI and over 10 AP(Access Points) available to connect 2.
 
Why would anyone use roaming? Just buy a local sim. Lycamobile barely cost me anything in the UK. In fact my balance seemed to mysteriously increase by £2 every now and again, relieving me of the need to even top up.
 
This really gets me going, straight profiteering. In the EU I am not sure where they are at yet, but roaming rules are coming in to play to deal with this situation.

Why can't MTN for example offer low roaming rates across all its Africa networks? This would be a massive differentiator and I am sure would win them a lot of business contracts which tend to be highly profitable. Vodafone are another huge one, with their worldwide footprint they really can create a huge gap between themselves and rivals by offering "Vodafone world" rates.

But no, they all want to eek out profits as long as they can on this when they could be consolidating market position.
 
Arthur said:
I forward my landline to cell when travelling, incl abroad. Though I have an AT&T contract for when in the US, I tend to stay with the SA SIM on roaming.
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Just leave a voice message on your landline explaining how to contact you. Get on Viber for friends and family, use your US number, recommend Cell C to people who contact you a lot because overseas calls are cheap etc. Make a plan. Roaming with an SA sim card is madness.
 
Beri said:
Just get a local sim..... Sorted.
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Tinuva said:
You don't have to make use of roaming. Just buy a prepaid sim in the country you visiting, it is much more affordable that way, even when you want to communicate back home.
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Bryn26 said:
Why would anyone use roaming? Just buy a local sim. Lycamobile barely cost me anything in the UK. In fact my balance seemed to mysteriously increase by £2 every now and again, relieving me of the need to even top up.
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Arthur said:
I forward my landline to cell when travelling, incl abroad. Though I have an AT&T contract for when in the US, I tend to stay with the SA SIM on roaming.
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Bryn26 said:
Just leave a voice message on your landline explaining how to contact you. Get on Viber for friends and family, use your US number, recommend Cell C to people who contact you a lot because overseas calls are cheap etc. Make a plan. Roaming with an SA sim card is madness.
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1. Getting a local SIM is a work-around. Frankly in this day and age you should not have to jump through the hoops.
2. It is not always easy getting a local SIM card. I had to get a local SIM card in Brazil the other day, and believe me it was not fun because you need a Brazillian CPF (tax number).
3. Not all countries have proper pre-paid packages.
4. Short visits might not warrant a new prepaid SIM card. You simply might not have the time.
5. Operators are shamelessly ripping you off. Our operators complain high and low that it is the international operators and not them. Just investigate the rates it take to roam from a foreign country in SA!

So unfortunately there seems to be no international body that is able to put a cap on roaming cost. In the perfect world ICASA would just cap roaming cost at (average consumer contract price in country visiting) + 33%. Operators will be forced to renegotiate. Hell if ACASA was an effective organization and they only threaten with it I am sure we would have see some action. The problem is that the networks are not terribly motivated.

Another interesting thing would be if a local operator offered a low cost roaming option to visitors to South Africa. You simply go a shop at the airport when you arrive, they register your SIM on their networks as a prepaid number. All incoming calls gets classified as roaming, but all outgoing and data is bill as prepaid. Probably will require some infrastructure upgrades though.
 
An MTN subscriber will pay around R106.50 per MB (at R2.60 per KB), and 3G roaming is limited to Safaricom only.
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Nobody else noticed this? R2.60 per KB equates to R2662.40 per MB, not R106.50.

If that's the case, you'll be out R2,726,297.60 per GB. ;)
 
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That is why you leave your SIM in SA when going abroad. Use WiFi or get a local SIM, as many other have suggested.
 
Totempole said:
Nobody else noticed this? R2.60 per KB equates to R2662.40 per MB, not R106.50.

If that's the case, you'll be out R2,726,297.60 per GB. ;)
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Roaming is charged in blocks of 25Kb if I'm not mistaked and it's something stupid like R20 so their price of R106.50 is probably correct, the R2.60 not so.
 
What i find funny is that roaming on mtn network when you are a mtn sub.. is still more costly than the local price in Sa or there.. WTF??? <-- thats just stupid profiteering. Only reason i used mtn was due to roaming possibilities but since i wont be travelling a lot my main sim will be roaming to a new provider as contract closes, just no real advantage
 
Johand said:
1. Getting a local SIM is a work-around. Frankly in this day and age you should not have to jump through the hoops.
2. It is not always easy getting a local SIM card. I had to get a local SIM card in Brazil the other day, and believe me it was not fun because you need a Brazillian CPF (tax number).
3. Not all countries have proper pre-paid packages.
4. Short visits might not warrant a new prepaid SIM card. You simply might not have the time.
5. Operators are shamelessly ripping you off. Our operators complain high and low that it is the international operators and not them. Just investigate the rates it take to roam from a foreign country in SA!

So unfortunately there seems to be no international body that is able to put a cap on roaming cost. In the perfect world ICASA would just cap roaming cost at (average consumer contract price in country visiting) + 33%. Operators will be forced to renegotiate. Hell if ACASA was an effective organization and they only threaten with it I am sure we would have see some action. The problem is that the networks are not terribly motivated.

Another interesting thing would be if a local operator offered a low cost roaming option to visitors to South Africa. You simply go a shop at the airport when you arrive, they register your SIM on their networks as a prepaid number. All incoming calls gets classified as roaming, but all outgoing and data is bill as prepaid. Probably will require some infrastructure upgrades though.
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I fully agree that our networks are full of sh*t, but I don't agree that it isn't pretty easy to mitigate the problem. Order your sim card well in advance online, use a neighbouring country's sim that charges little for the network, pay a local to get you a sim card etc.

I know some well travelled people, including a woman who has nearly finished her quest of visiting every region on earth (currently in North Korea), and they have no issues staying in contact with friends, family and colleagues at the lowest possible cost.
 
Bryn26 said:
I fully agree that our networks are full of sh*t, but I don't agree that it isn't pretty easy to mitigate the problem. Order your sim card well in advance online, use a neighbouring country's sim that charges little for the network, pay a local to get you a sim card etc.

I know some well travelled people, including a woman who has nearly finished her quest of visiting every region on earth (currently in North Korea), and they have no issues staying in contact with friends, family and colleagues at the lowest possible cost.
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You are completely missing the point.

It shouldn't have to be this way. Technically there is no reason why it should be so obscenely expensive.
 
abandonallhope said:
You are completely missing the point.

It shouldn't have to be this way. Technically there is no reason why it should be so obscenely expensive.
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No, I completely get the point. The first line in the post you quoted stated my acceptance of how sh*t our networks are in this regard. Bending over for them isn't some sort of protest though - it's just stupid.
 
Shows you what scum the mobile operators are .. given the slightest gap where no regulation exist they set their own extortionist prices. Capitalism at its very worst.
 
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