Mobile Market is Dysfunctional for Multinational Customers
Multinational Companies (MNCs) cannot get what they are looking for on the mobile market, which is: cross-border one-stop shopping; one-stop billing; centralised management; and last but not least, reasonable prices.
INTUG (the International Telecommunications Users Group) has put together a paper on the problems MNCs experience in the mobile market when they seek to centrally manage and rationalise the use of mobile communications, whether in a region or globally. The paper highlights that providers have no consistent offering across their coverage region, which results in an incoherent patchwork of services, bundles, pricing schemes and management capabilities. Mobile operators concentrate more on private mass market consumers and domestic profitability, while neglecting to create a competitive advantage by offering MNCs and SMEs in the business market a consistent and fairly priced international services package.
For a long time, companies have managed their regional or global voice and data networks in a centralised way in order to create a consistent, secure and price effective service that corresponds to their needs. Attempts to do the same in the mobile market systematically fail, because providers are not geared up to satisfy these requirements.
The cost of international mobile communications is also staggering, compared to calls over the fixed network. While it is understood that mobile communications still come at a premium price today, the international rates seem to be disconnected from any cost-based model. Roaming tariffs (rates for making or receiving calls on a mobile while abroad) jump to a multiple of a domestic call, even though the international portion of the mobile call goes over high speed international trunks run these days at fairly low cost to the operators.
When using mobile data abroad, the situation only gets worse, as many reported bill shocks prove. This forces companies to limit data service usage, which in turn handicaps operators from further developing the market. Only when price levels are reasonable will professionals increase their use of mobile data services.
INTUG is therefore calling upon suppliers of international mobile services to move away from country-based selling models and to create multi-country business units with their own P&L that offer the kind of service multinationals need, which is specifically: one-stop shopping, one-stop billing and centralised management of mobile communications at fair and reasonable cost-based and transparent prices.
At the same time, INTUG is calling upon the European Commission and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) to intervene in this dysfunctional market, in which consumers as well as companies are ripped-off when using mobiles abroad. With today’s communications technology, there is no fundamental reason why mobile communications should cost a multiple of fixed communications. It is also fair to expect that regional roaming costs should disappear over time. However, it appears that new legislation will be indispensable to get there.
Finally, INTUG recommends that representatives of business customers act, and challenge the mobile operators to offer them the services they need at realistic prices. Technologically, there are no fundamental barriers preventing this from happening. It is a matter of willingness, organisation and entrepreneurship.
INTUG is an international association of business users of telecommunications, bringing together national and multinational user associations throughout the world. With members and contacts in all five continents, it has a global presence.
See also the INTUG paper http://su.pr/29dYpx
Tagged in: Global
