Australia data roaming charges among the highest in the developed world, OECD report finds

Australia is among the most expensive developed countries in the world when it comes to mobile data and voice roaming charges, with Canada topping the list, a new OECD report reveals.

The new report comes just days after a separate set of recommendations from the Australian Communication and Media Authority found more Australians are suffering “bill shock” when they find telco services are more expensive than they first thought.

Telsyte research manager Foad Fadaghi says Australia might have high roaming charges simply because this is what telcos have charged in the past.

“Perhaps it is historical, because we have such highly expensive roaming rates and there shouldn’t really be any reason why we are so high,” he says.

The study found Australia was the eighth most expensive country for downloading one megabyte of data in one user session, with Canada, the United States and Mexico rounding out the top three. Only Chile, Israel, Japan and Poland were ahead of Australia.

For downloading five megabytes on different days in separate sessions, Australia comes in seventh, with Chile, the United States and Japan rounding out the top three.

Overall, the OECD report – which surveyed over 60 operators from 34 different countries – found roaming charges are high across the world, especially when compared to the domestic rates of each nation.

It also found that data roaming charges are so high there is a “strong case for the implementation of measures that seek to empower or protect customers”.

These could include data usage controls and consumption limits, which would block users from accessing data if they have exceeded a certain amount of downloads – this is the same recommendation that was included in ACMA’s report last week.

“A sound cost-benefit assessment, in order to evaluate different options and ensure an effective implementation, should be undertaken,” it found.

“The measure most likely to have success is to find ways to increase the effectiveness of competition in the market. Current pricing levels indicate that there is, in general terms, either insufficient retail or wholesale competition.”

However, this issue is not a regulatory matter.

With prices being set by telcos and their international counterparts, Ovum research director David Kennedy says it’s really up to the telcos both at home and abroad to draw up better rates for users – and right now, there isn’t much competition.

“Of course regulators could try and do something, but it would require international coordination. It’s really up to the telcos to decide the price,” he says.

And that in itself is a problem as well. Kennedy points out Australian telcos are only mid-sized by international standards, and therefore struggle to control clout in these types of global negotiations.

“Even if Australian carriers were competitive, they would only be controlling one side of the negotiation anyway. And being fairly small by global standards, we only have limited amounts of bargaining power.”

“The other point to be made is that we spend a small amount of our time overseas, so this becomes a secondary consideration. Domestic bill shock is a bigger issue than roaming bill shock, so they’re going to put all their resources in that area.”