Positive changes in the roaming market have brought about the change in regulations, including a drop in roaming complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and the introduction of travel packs for overseas data use by major Australian providers as well as a significant reduction, in many cases, of the cost of calls, SMS and data - particularly as part of travel packs.
The changes to the regulations for mobile roaming have been made by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), with the authority amending the International Mobile Roaming Industry Standard (IMR) after the Minister for Communications directed ACMA to make the changes earlier this year.
The amendments have also been made in response to initiatives proposed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association and the Communications Alliance.
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According to ACMA, the amendments also take into account significant improvements in the products offered by the telecommunications industry for international mobile roaming since the introduction of the IMR Standard in 2013.
When the IMR standards were introduced in 2013 they focused on four key consumer protection measures:
• A notification via SMS to be sent to all consumers on arrival overseas, warning them that significantly higher charges for using roaming services may apply
• A notification sent via SMS to customers of service providers giving them pricing information for using a range of roaming services
• Spend management tools, including notifications in A$100 increments for data usage and notifications at 50, 85 and 100 per cent of included value, if a customer has purchased an included value package from their IMR service provider
• Enabling customers to stop international roaming, at low cost, at any time—including from an overseas location.
