iPass Tackles High Cost of Roaming with New Index

Kathryn Weldon

Summary Bullets:

• Global voice and especially global data roaming remain expensive and confusing to consumers and business travelers in spite of recent EU caps and launches by global operators and alliances (such as FreeMove) that offer more reasonable zoned and pay-per-use tariff options.
• While WiFi provides some relief, coverage is still spotty and unpredictable.  WiFi aggregation leader iPass has come out with a new report that helps companies price out various roaming scenarios for their traveling employees and offers suggestions about how to use iPass WiFi services to take out some of the pain and uncertainty.

T-Mobile USA’s new unlimited global data roaming packages, announced in October, were an exciting move that should be appealing to its business customers, but the carrier is not completely alone in its vision.  Other operators such as Telefonica and Vodafone, and operator alliances such as FreeMove, have also helped their business customers with zoned and usage-based roaming options which make the cellular costs less expensive and more predictable.  Voice over WiFi is often free and readily available in Europe.  However, although WiFi continues to be used as a way to eliminate or greatly reduce the cost of global roaming, it remains unpredictable, with security and performance issues added to the spotty nature of WiFi coverage, making it a less than perfect solution.