Starhub’s CEO Neil Montefiore became a bit of a hero at TM Forum’s Management World 2011 this week when he declared that roaming charges were outrageous and that the GSMA should do something about it.
“All the mobile operators in the world should just get together and agree to lower mobile roaming charges. The GSMA could step in and help,” he told the audience in Dublin, all nodding emphatically in approval.
The Twittersphere erupted in agreement to Montefiore’s comments, with one delegate in the audience tweeting: “we know that there’s no justification for those charges, as we all know, too, what the cost drivers are.”
Another wrote, “Everyone liked the comment about lowering roaming charges. We’re all consumers in the end, aren’t we?”
Montefiore argued that instead of charging ridiculous amounts for data abroad, carriers should be reigning in roaming charges significantly and increasing transparency. “telling people how much they have spent roaming encourages them to spend something and not just turn the roaming off,” he said.
This too was met with approval from the audience. “O2 want to charge me £3 per Mb to use my iPhone. As a result, data roaming is switched off. [O2’s] revenue will be zero,” tweeted another audience member.
Montefiore, you just made a lot of new friends in Dublin.
