Rating: Its tables provide hard stats for data in 9 countries
Roaming charges are making all the headlines at the moment. There are apocryphal tales of consumers spending two weeks data roaming abroad and getting a bill that takes two months to pay off. Just loading your own Facebook home page ten times can cost more than $50.00 – depending on home country and operator plan, of course. So Opera Software decided to take a close look at data roaming charges in the latest (May 2012) edition of its State of the Mobile Web Report. One of the report’s more surprising findings was that mobile users in two of the most advanced telecom nations on the world- Japan and the United Sates, are among those charged the most for data roaming. Naturally, the report shows how much you would save if you switch over to Opera’s Mini browser.The report takes a look at how many dollars it could cost to view the Facebook home page as well as checking your Gmail email inbox (ten times each for both).
Then the report shows the equivalent price when using Opera’s Mini technology.
The cost of surfing up to a megabyte of data abroad can be 90 times more in one country than another country.
In developing countries like Indonesia, the report saw particularly high rates for international data roaming.
Opera’s researchers took a virtual trip around the globe and compared charges in nine different countries including the United States, Japan, Russia. It then provides figures for smartphone users from EU, Japan, Thailand, Brazil, USA and South Africa.
Opera advises that those planning to surf while on holiday or working, investing in an international data pack from the home operator is advisable.
It warns, “Such data plans vary a lot in terms of cost; commitment to plans; and limits for data usage so make sure to read up before packing your suitcases.”
Naturally, Opera also suggest that it would be a jolly good idea to download the Opera Mini to a smartphone before jetting off.
GoMobile News suggests that you do so using Wi-fi (if possible) as well!
Scan this to download Opera
You can obtain the app from all the usual app stores or you can point your smartphone’s browser at m.opera.com.
Naturally the Opera Mini app for free for most mobile OS but not, sadly, Windows Phone 7.5 (W7 Mango) at present.
To see the full tables of data roaming charges and to read the whole report, go here.
Price of data roaming is slowly going down. Next week, data roaming prices for europeans traveling within Europe will be reduced to 0,70€ + 20% VAT = 0,84 per MB
This is still way too expensive, but some solutions emerge with a new form: mobile hotspot rental.
You rent from a provider a small device that connects to the internet using 3G, but you do not have to worry about this part. All you have to do is connect to the wifi signal and surf. Prices can be radically different.
For France, compare the 11 to 16€ per MB an american pays, to the 0,06 to 0,14€ per MB the French provider: FrenchConnection.fr offers
When choosing a provider check:
- Price per day
- How many many MB included each day
- Can I report unused MB to the next day
- How much am I charged if I go over my allotment
- What are the delivery costs
- Where is the provider’s support team based. In case of a problem, only the local ones can react quickly!