International data roaming: a market primed for disruption

Is the data roaming market ripe for disruption, especially for the huge increase of smartphone Asian global travellers? Tech in Asia finds out

An associate, who is a regular traveller across various European countries and China, told me of a recent outrageous bill that he received from his Singapore telco provider, Starhub, to an estimated tune of $4,000! Despite his pleas and explanation that there was no alert from the telco sent to his Blackberry which was silently downloading heavy file attachments in the background, the customer service was unforgiving and unwilling to relent on the bill payment. The bill is still currently in dispute.
 

Bill shocks are not uncommon as friends who have travelled overseas have complained of similar situations. And while telcos claim that they act in the best interests of customers by alerting them, they are still more than happy to pound hefty charges onto unsuspecting travellers, using extensive overloaded legal jargon agreements as their right to bill you.
 

With the rise of the frequent traveller moving across multiple countries and the insatiable demand to be connected with convenience, is the data roaming market ripe for disruption, especially for the huge increase of smartphone Asian global travellers?
 

According to Juniper Research, global operator revenues from mobile roaming data is to set hit $42b by 2018. This is a real huge market opportunity. An article by Telecoms.com further adds, “Mobile data roaming is expected to show substantial growth due to the popularity of app stores and the ongoing success of smartphones, delivering a 28% CAGR or a 246% increase over the five year period.”
 

The article further comments that “EU regulations have presently limit roaming spend to €50 per trip”. This is great for EU countries but I have been unable to find any regulations set in other parts of the world, especially for Asia. 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.