Mobile firm cuts roaming rates as Europe pressure builds

SmarTone-Vodafone is leading mobile-phone operators in cutting international roaming charges as the pressure to reduce the stiff tariff imposed on customers for making and receiving calls outside their home country spreads from Europe.

SmarTone, one of the five mobile operators in Hong Kong, has recently introduced a single-rate roaming charge covering China, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.

Customers making calls to and from Hong Kong or local calls in those areas will be charged a unified rate of HK$3.80 per minute, which represents average savings of 40 per cent, the firm said on its website.

Since June, European operators such as Vodafone and T-Mobile have moved to halve roaming charges to pre-empt a European Commission proposal to force price cuts through regulation.

The European Union has proposed to limit wholesale and retail roaming rates in a bid to slash the charges by up to 70 per cent.

'You get European customers roaming on our network when they travel to Hong Kong, so these operators would naturally ask us to offer similar roaming rate discounts to them when cheaper roaming rates are already being offered in Europe,' an executive at one Hong Kong mobile operator said.

The reductions, which are also being looked at by other operators such as Hutchison Telecommunications International, could cut an important source of revenue for operators.