When talking about roaming we might have to indicate the type of roaming we
are talking about.
I guess what Benjamin is referring to roaming between operators. True, they
are serial offenders,...they are all in the process of being fined serious
money by the european union because of misconduct on roaming :-)
but when you refer to roaming between GPRS and WLAN then assuming that both
belong to the same authority (eg. the operator), this would be alot clearer
on the cost side.
mixing it GPRS/WLAN roaming over different operators networks... well guess
that is science fiction.... or only for the rich and famous.
wim
Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
On Friday, June 7, 2002, at 03:50 , Filbig, Arno Alexander (Arno) wrote:
your topic ..when mobile operators are becoming WLAN
operators .. is already reality
Misunderstanding: I was referring to the comment that roaming charges
may be reasonable if only the WLAN infrastructure was also in the hands
of mobile operators. I meant to say I doubt that WLAN roaming will be
reasonably priced if run by mobile phone companies.
There is not a single example of reasonable roaming charges in the
mobile market to date. A study for the EU claimed that roaming charges
are in no relation to the cost. Although mobile phone companies have
protested against the finding, they have not provided any evidence to
the contrary and the EU anti-competition commission has since been
undertaking an inquiry during which the offices of mobile phone
operators' offices were raided and evidence collected which is said to
suggest that there is indeed an illegal cartel in operation.
This may yet lead to prosecution of the major mobile players in Europe.
Why would anyone believe that roaming charges for WLAN would be
reasonable if in the hands of mobile phone companies. They are serial
offenders when it comes to roaming.
I spoke to several operators worldwide and the big ones such as
Vodaphone,
AT&T and T-Mobile
are introducing the 802 service this summer also a GPRS/802 service with
seamless roaming
is planed for Spring 2003
I find it rather surprising that there are end users who advocate and
welcome this. May it be that the main driver here is the hope for
engineering work from mobile phone companies ?
Anyone who really wants to use WLAN on a regular basis in various
geographies cannot possibly hope for the mobile phone companies to get
their hands on WLAN billing.
Well, perhaps I am the only cost conscious reader here but ...
I would be seriously interested to know from readers of this list ...
- how much would you be willing to spend on roaming surcharges ?
if it is by the minute billing: how much would you pay per minute ?
if it is flat fee (unlikely in a cross-net-boundaries roaming context):
how much per month ?
- how likely are you to use roaming if there is a significantly cheaper
way to pay ?
if it is 500 yen per hour up front at the counter versus 50/100/300
yen/min roaming
if it is 15 minutes airtime per drink versus 50/100/300 yen/min roaming
if it is 2000 yen/month directly to the WLAN operator versus 50/100/300
yen/min roaming
As I see it, in relation to WLAN services, the mobile operators
(particularly those with 3G licenses and networks being rolled out) are
in a catch 22 situation. They can't really ignore it, but on the one
side if they overcharge for roaming as is their habit, there will be a
strong incentive to bypass them with alternative ways of payment. On the
other side, if they keep it cheap, they are likely to cannibalise their
3G data services, which to roll-out they have overspent already and as a
result of which they can't really afford a price war.
regards
benjamin
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Received on Sun Jun 9 13:44:41 2002