The most surprising point about BT Openzone’s per-minute tariff is that when roaming, the prices are usually lower.
The recent EU-level decisions on mobile international roaming retail tariffs are much in the news. One area that is receiving less attention is the growth in international roaming for WiFi hotspot users. Taking the UK offer of BT Openzone as an example, roaming is available onto other providers’ hotspots in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, parts of Scandinavia, the USA, Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland … and the list increases.
This is not the more than 100 countries in which you can roam with a Vodafone mobile; nor is it the seamless coverage you get with a 2G or 3G mobile network. But it is cheap when compared to mobile data prices. UK retail tariffs range from GBP2–11 per Mbyte when roaming, and the EU-level intervention will do nothing to lower these prices (it might even cause them to rise). Stories of holidays where the mobile data bill cost more than the holiday, or business trips where businessmen ran up bills of several thousand euro are not unusual.
By contrast, BT Openzone’s WiFi offer now has a postpaid option of GBP0.20+VAT per minute in the UK. Various prepaid options (such as one hour, one week) and contract options (such as a bundle of 500 minutes per month, or unlimited use) are also available. But the most surprising point about this per-minute tariff is that when roaming, the prices are usually lower. Depending on the country, it is typically half this price and can be as little as a quarter – an Openzone subscriber can pay as little as GBP0.045 per minute – congratulations, T-Mobile Czech Republic!
Of course, roamers may be able to get WiFi access for free, especially if buying another service, such as premium coffee, a hotel room, or flight (for example, at Manchester Airport, WiFi is available for free, if not at Heathrow). There are also devices that come with free WiFi access (Nintendo DS in the UK and Nordic countries, for example). It is possible to piggyback onto these networks from nearby, but beware: in late May, a man from Michigan reportedly received a USD400 fine and 40 hours of community service for using such a service illegally (in essence, not buying the coffee to pay for the access).
What can we learn from this, other than to use WiFi where available? We are yet to see the impact of lower mobile international roaming charges on retail national tariffs; facing declining roaming revenues, the operators will certainly try to make their money elsewhere (an example of the so-called ‘water-bed effect’). It would perhaps be surprising if this led to higher national prices than roaming prices. But, as seen above, the market teaches us that sometimes, surprising things do happen.