Conroy works to reduce AU NZ Roaming Rates
Despite his many criticisms, Senator Stephen Conroy seems to be doing some good for the telecommunications sector in Australia by teaming up the DBCDE with the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development to work towards reducing mobile voice roaming rates between Australian and New Zealand which are claimed to be absorbanent.
This positive move from the Labour Senator is welcome news to travellers, who are stung with huge phone bills that, according to Comms Day report this week, netted Telstra up to $390 million in roaming revenue for 2009 alone.
It is reported that network operators margins on roaming are increased by 400% compared to local calls, however operating expenses involved in delivering the service allegedly only cost the Telcos around 20% more than the cost of a local call.
We look forward to seeing any downward pressure on the price of roaming mobile calls, and hope the initiative between Australia and New Zealand sets an example for the rest of the Telco regulatory bodies around the globe to look at reducing their costs, to benefit the increasing number of global travellers.
There has been some more news surrounding this topic released 13th July 2010. Further reading:
http://smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Industry/H8N6S7F2