Sydney, 3 May, 2005 vRoam’s second annual global mobile roaming index reveals high pricing is still rife despite local mobile call rates dropping.  The index shows it costs six times as much to make a call from New Zealand  when roaming than to receive one. Indonesia is identified as one of the most expensive countries for Australians to use mobile global roaming at nearly $6 per minute to call back to Australia.

 The index shows the alarming price gap between receiving and making calls in Australia’s major business travel destinations.

 “New Zealand is still the biggest rip-off when it comes to the difference between making and receiving calls,” says vRoam Global CEO, Danny Nathanson. “This is partly due to the nature of mobile roaming and perhaps the fact there is only one GSM carrier in New Zealand.

 He says vRoam initiated the index to highlight the exorbitant mobile roaming charges for a 2003 ACCC enquiry. vRoam is still calling for a roaming code of conduct that would include full transparencies of networks roaming costs. “Roaming is one of the very few areas of telecommunications that is almost totally unregulated,” Nathanson commented.

 “Meanwhile, Telstra’s recent results show a massive 53 percent increase in roaming revenue in the past 12 months.”

 Overall rates to the main business destinations have increased by an average of 6% even though local mobile phone rates have reduced, he reports.  ”There appears to be protection of mobile margins by increasing roaming rates as local call rates drop,” Nathanson added.

 Australian business travellers also experience other hidden costs because of the ‘tromboning’ between the different countries and their networks, he says.

 “Many people do not realise that it is more expensive to miss a call and then retrieve a voicemail message from Australia than to simply answer the call. This is because calls are tromboned or bounced back and forth between their Australian carrier and foreign network,” said Nathanson.

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vRoam is an Australian-based global mobile service provider that offers a low-cost alternative to global roaming. The service diverts an existing Australian mobile phone number to a local SIM card overseas to cut out roaming charges, saving travellers up to 40 per cent on their mobile usage. Users are contactable overseas on their normal Australian mobile phone number and are also given a local number for the foreign country to make local calls at local rates. The service doesn’t affect existing relationships with Australian mobile phone carries and is available to prepaid customers. For further information visit www.vRoam.com or call 1300 787 626.

Media enquiries Satu Raunola, Finnesse Communications T. 02 9929 2044 E. satu@finnesse.com.au Or Danny Nathanson vRoam Global E. danny.nathanson@vRoam.com