TeliaSonera, a leading telecommunications service provider, expects lower operator bills for users surfing the web through smartphones, tablets and laptops outside their home countries. As per reports, Lars Nyberg, President and CEO, TeliaSonera, has said that the industry has been shooting itself in the foot for years with the kind of prices they’ve had and that it has been a major mistake. He added that people turn off their roaming at the airport and don’t like to use their phones due to sky high prices.
Mr. Nyberg believes that lowering the data roaming prices would help improve the company’s overall profitability by encouraging more users to access data at affordable rates. TeliaSonera had cut its data roaming prices by 90 percent this year for users travelling within the Nordic and Baltic countries and aims to extend this to almost 30 countries. As per reports, customers were able to access 20 megabytes of data at a charge of only $7.6 each day, significantly lower than the proposed ceiling of $1.24 per megabyte by the European Commission. Further, users are also sent a text message if they are required to top up their account.
While industry insiders feel that this move may negatively affect the company’s profits, Mr. Nyberg believes that this would infact better their earnings as compared to before.