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By
Tara
Seals
Roaming into
Global Opportunity
I
nternational roaming charges for wireless data
and voice calls are a notorious wallet-buster,
with horror stories about four-digit cell phone
bills after a European vacation or business trip
being not uncommon. A handful of high-profile
communications giants are now saying that they’re
paving the way for the end of bill shock – which could
be good for agents looking to help out their globe-
trotting business customers.
Mobile Ecosystem’s Mark Lowenstein laid out the
problem in a recent column: “Fix International. There
has been some headway by operators, but the whole
international ball ‘o wax can still be confusing and ex-
pensive. Plus, it’s still not easy for the occasional trav-
eler to buy a temporary plan on an as-needed basis.”
Into the breach come a few players: Sprint, for
instance, said that it’s dropping the charges for inter-
national roaming in Latin America, Europe and Japan.
The offer is actually applicable in only 15 countries (Ar-
gentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany,
Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia,
South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom), and it
applies mainly for voice. Data roaming is a different ani-
mal, because the “free” aspect only applies to 2G.
INTERNATIONAL AGENTs
SECTION
18
Channel
Vision
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May - June 2015