In a recent study conducted among 28,000 EU citizens, the European Commission has revealed that more than a quarter of European tourists would prefer turning their mobiles off when travelling in the EU in order to avoid roaming charges.
The Commission in its calculation stated that telecoms companies, because of their current pricing strategies, are missing out on a market of more than 300 million phone users as 47 percent of the people in the survey accepted that they would never use mobile internet in another EU country.
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President, shocked by the study figures said: “It shows we have to finish the job and eliminate roaming charges. Consumers are limiting their phone use in extreme ways and this makes no sense for the companies either.”
“It’s not just a fight between holiday-makers and telecoms companies. Millions of businesses face extra costs because of roaming, and companies like app makers lose revenue too. Roaming makes no sense in a single market – it’s economic madness.”
In the survey it was found that roaming charges are having a negative impact on Europe’s overall app economy including travel guide, photo and map apps.
In addition 94 percent of people surveyed also avoided using social media including Facebook and Twitter when in an EU country other than their own.
The survey showed that around 28 percent of the travelers who travel in the EU switch off their mobile phone when travelling to another country. Only 8 percent of them use the phone abroad in the same way as at they use them at home. More people tend to choose texting over phoning while in another country.
Another interesting thing to note is that frequent travelers in comparison to occasional travelers are more likely to switch-off their data roaming capabilities as they are better informed about the real cost of data roaming than occasional travelers.
The European Commission’s research study backs up its mission of abolishing all roaming charges by 2016 at the latest. The European authority wants to use a combination of rules and market incentives to achieve domestic rates for customers in the EU while travelling throughout the Union.
