AMTA slams KPMG international roaming report

by Stuart Corner

Monday, 18 August 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has slammed the report on international mobile roaming charges produced by KPMG for the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. The report claimed that retail margins on international roaming calls could be has high as 400 percent and for Australian carriers were, on average, three times non-roamed margins. According to AMTA "The report relies on biased and selective samples of roaming rates in selected countries and fails to give a realistic picture of rates in a range of countries...[It] compares average consumer charges for roamed and non-roamed calls and uses it to make headline statements about Australian international roaming charges. The report compares the average cost of calling an international destination with the average cost of calling from the destination back to Australia. This is like comparing apples with oranges." However in some cases KPMG simply cited references to other studies to support its content that mobile roaming charges were well above cost. KPMG has declined to comment, despite these serious criticisms, and their potential impact on the reputation of the global consultancy firm. A spokeswoman told iTWire: "We do not comment on confidential reports that have been prepared for clients." (DBCDE has released the report on its website. The report was commissioned as in input to an inquiry into international mobile roaming charges being undertaken by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications. AMTA CEO, Chris Althaus, said the industry had great concerns about the limitations and accuracy of the KPMG report and was very disappointed that key industry members had not been sufficiently consulted to ascertain the facts. According to Althaus, "KPMG says the average retail price per minute for an Australian SIM cardholder roaming overseas is $2.75. It calculates that the wholesale cost to be 46 cents or 17 percent of the retail price. This is incorrect and KPMG should have looked at the 2005 ACCC Report, which found the wholesale costs were as much as 75 percent of the retail price." However KPMG was clearly aware of the ACCC's findings: it quoted from that report, but made no comment on the discrepancy between its and the ACCC's estimate of wholesale costs. Furthermore KPMG notes that Australian carriers declined to provide any details on wholesale roaming costs. "Due to the commercially sensitive nature of IOTs,[inter-operator tariffs, AKA wholesale roaming charges] no publicly available Australian data could be found." CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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