Apac data roaming showing Europe how its done

UK: The recent launch of an unlimited flat-rate data roaming tariff by Singapore’s third operator M1 shows Asia Pacific continuing to challenge traditional roaming tariff structures as an effect of domestic competition.

“The Asia Pacific markets are achieving through competition what it is taking the threat of regulation to manage in Europe” comments Angela Stainthorpe, Research Analyst and author of Informa Telecoms & Media’s recently published strategic report ‘Global Mobile Roaming: Operator strategies and Market Trends, 3rd edition’.

Singapore’s third operator M1 launched a promotional daily data roaming plan capping charges at S$25.60 (US$18.75) per day for usage of 5MB or over.  Below 5MB, users pay 5 cents (US$0.036) per 10KB. The plan is available to M1 subscribers roaming on the Celcom Malaysia and SmarTone-Vodafone Hong Kong networks until 15 December 2008.

This move by M1 follows the introduction of flat-rate daily data roaming plans by Starhub, Singapore’s second operator by subscriptions. Starhub’s offer, launched in April 2008, gives customers unlimited data roaming on seven Asia Pacific networks for S$30 (US$21.98) per day. Starhub’s unlimited data plan was jointly rolled out with pay-per-day flat rate data and capped roaming plans from six other members of the Conexus Alliance. These flat rate services were the first of their kind in the region.

“Transparent tariffs will be key to the success of data roaming”, adds Stainthorpe, “And data will be the future for roaming in Asia Pacific.

“Roaming in the region is certainly significant”, she continues, “but not at nearly the same level as in the more mature European roaming markets, hence traditional roaming models are less important to the region. We expect to see more unlimited plans in Asia Pacific as the roaming alliances strengthen their presence in the consumer marketplace. Their inter-operator relationships will expedite and simplify wholesale roaming negotiations, leading to more innovative pricing structures for end users.”

Revenues from non-SMS data roaming in Asia Pacific are forecast to grow to almost four times their 2008 level by 2013.