It’s hip2b2

Looks like Hutchison 3 is removing roaming charges between its operating entities in different countries around the world. 3 is present in Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, Austria, Denmark, and Italy.

In a bold move against larger competitors, mobile operator 3 has today announced that it will eliminate roaming charges when customers travel to countries where 3 operates. This pricing structure, which 3 is calling ‘3 Like Home,’ means that when a customer roams onto an overseas 3 network, their regular plan or prepaid charges will apply, rather than being charged a premium as with other carriers.

The deal, to commence this month, extends not only to standard calls and messages, but also to data roaming and any other mobile service. In addition, 3 will not charge users to receive calls using foreign 3 networks. 3 operates networks in Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, Austria, Denmark, and Italy. The operator is quick to caution that while roaming fees are non-existent when roaming on its own foreign networks, excess charges will still apply when roaming in an area that 3 does not cover.

This involves all roaming charges: voice, SMS and mobile data. Since, it involves mobile data this can possibly mean cheaper X-series usage within the 3 operator networks. Will this start a trend amongst operators networks like Bridge, Vodafone and others to start removing their roaming charges? Hopefully, the increase in usage will compensate for the lost roaming revenues.

PS. This is not quite related. But, AT&T has also introduced a Unity Plan that allows AT&T wireline and wireless users to call each other at a fixed rate. Local PLDT and Smart also have some products similar (but not the same) as this. Is this a growing trend?

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 21st, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.