Canada among highest international roaming fees: OECD

Canada's wireless providers charge some of the highest prices in the world for international roaming, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says. In a new report on mobile wireless roaming released May 30, the OECD's science, technology and industry directorate ranked Canada last among OECD countries for average pricing for a mobile session that consumes 1 MB of data while roaming to another country (excluding intra-European roaming). On average, Canadian providers charge $29.27 US for a 1 MB data roaming session in another country, the report said. The report said averages were used because statistics on roaming traffic patterns are not available. The OECD added that the most travelled international routes tend to be more price-sensitive and receive more competitive roaming rates, noting that Canada's roaming rates to the U.S. and Mexico are low. Still, in a chart that measured the average cost of a 1 MB data session among least expensive roaming destinations, Canada ranked 32 out of 35 OECD countries. “The average price by country across the OECD is USD 9.48 PPP. The most expensive countries as home networks were Canada (USD 24.61), the United States (USD 22.06) and Mexico (19.85). The least expensive home countries for this usage pattern are Greece (USD 4.17), Iceland (USD 4.42) and Luxembourg (USD 4.46),” the report said. It added that discounted roaming rates for travelling abroad can be found through domestic mobile broadband plans such as one offered by Rogers Communications Inc. “Other advertised data plans require a minimum commitment period, such as Rogers’s add-ons in Canada (3 month commitment), T-Mobile in Austria (6-month commitment period for the World Class Data Premium offer) or Verizon’s Global Access Connect (1-year commitment),” the report said. Following the release of the report, Brent Johnston, vice-president of mobility marketing at Telus Corp., told the Financial Post that Telus plans to cut its roaming fees and that customers should expect a reduction by “greater than 50 per cent.” He said by early July data roaming fees will be reduced “across the board" and that there will be "changes to how we price the category.”

Canada among highest international roaming fees: OECD

Brief | June 8, 2011

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