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Telefonica chief says mobile broadband roaming prices to be slashed
Robert Mourik said roaming costs will be reduced to domestic levels by 2015.
Speaking to ZDNet UK at Brussels' Regulating Mobile Roaming Charges forum, Robert Mourik said a reduction in current fees would ultimately prove beneficial to consumers and the mobile industry as a whole.
At present, UK customers typically pay out-of-bundle rates of between £1 and £3.07 per MB for accessing the web from their mobile devices while they are abroad in Europe. In contrast, logging on at home costs £5 for 500MB of usage with the majority of current data tariffs.
Despite the vast gap that exists between these charges, Mr Mourik insisted service providers will slash their roaming fees without the need for regulatory intervention.
He argued carriers want to see subscribers using their mobile devices while they are abroad and that it therefore makes sense for this to be made more affordable.
The Telefonica executive revealed the Spain-based telecoms giant is currently conducting tests to assess the impact of reduced prices.
"We think we can make more money by lowering our data prices," Mr Mourik explained. "It won't be the same in every country, but I am pretty certain that by 2015 data roaming rates will be more or less the same as domestic rates.
"I am not going to give you numbers, but what I am saying is yes, we are going to lower our prices by a lot in our operating businesses. It depends a bit on the outcome of consumer tests."
However, 3 Mobile chief executive Kevin Russell has expressed doubts that the industry will drive down costs on its own.
In an interview with Mobile Today, he noted the European Commission was forced to intervene to bring down voice roaming rates and is expecting the same to be true for SMS messaging and data.