Saturday, June 28, 2008

Free to Roam

Today European travellers have to unlock their mobiles and carry a number of different service Sim cards, subscribe to a more expensive option that covers multiple countries, or await the shock when the bill itemises those calls made and received outside their home country..
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A European Commission survey of 27,000 homes across the EU found that 24% of homes surveyed were only using their mobile phones and 5% were now using the Internet to make calls. This still means that the majority still use there land lines but the survey also found that the trend away from land lines had significant variance between countries. The figure was as high as 39% in the ex communist countries as governments there found it cheaper to move to mobile than upgrade old networks.
Understandably, in Finland, the home of Nokia and mobile technology, the survey found 61% were mobile only.

The survey also found that although around 50% of household have Internet access only 36% are broadband.

A separate Commission survey cited the roaming tariff charges outside of a household’s home state as being the factor that was holding back the wider adoption and switch to mobile. In July the Commission will decide on whether to impose caps on the price of roamed texts. Regulation on roaming charges looks inevitable but there is also recognition that there is a difference between text at one end and data at the other.

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