Gov't response to international roaming enquiry offers little

Stuart Corner
Monday, 14 September 2009 11:08

IT Industry - Strategy

However the government said that it agreed with the intent of the recommendation, to create competition between providers of international roaming services and to allow customers to retain their regular mobile phone numbers while they are overseas, and said that it would "consult with the ACMA and relevant industry stakeholders to explore alternatives to this recommendation that seek to deliver on its intended purpose."

Communications Alliance noted release of the government's response in its weekly newsletter but its only comment was to rejoice in the Government's decision not to push for temporary mobile number portability "Industry is pleased to see that the Government accepted its recommendation that temporary mobile number portability for roaming services should not be introduced." It made no comment on the suggestion that it meet with the ACMA.

Earlier, aspects of the Parliamentary e of the enquiry met with a hostile response form industry. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy commissioned a report on international mobile roaming from KPMG. It 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.

The Australian Mobile Télécommunications Assocation (AMTA) was quick to condemn the report , saying it relied on biased and selective samples of roaming rates in selected countries and failed to give a realistic picture of rates in a range of countries.


Recommendation (5) was accepted "Relevant Government departments and agencies will provide information to the public on alternatives to roaming, including VoIP services. The ACMA has added the list of recommended alternatives to their fact sheet on International mobile roaming," the response said.