It is not that South Asian telcos are not moving in this direction, but I have not seen as good a description of a comprehensive solution to the “pain point” of international data roaming from them. I invite them to submit links if such descriptions exist.
Telecom New Zealand has announced that, as of December 21, 2012, customers will have a simplified global-roaming charge rate that will dramatically cut the costs for using data while overseas.
The rates for post-paid customers start at NZ$6 per day for data if travellers are visiting Australia or Christmas Island, or NZ$10 per day for the US, UK, Canada, China, Macau, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. For the rest of the world, the rate varies between NZ$2.50 per megabyte to NZ$5 per megabyte, but the company said that this still represents an 83 to 92 percent cut in the cost for using data overseas.
Calling from Australia is also 35 percent cheaper, and from the rest of the world, it is up to 50 percent cheaper.
The telco has a “fair use” policy attached to the rate, however, and customers who exceed the average daily data use will be given one warning, and if they exceed this amount again, Telecom NZ has said that it may suspend that user’s account.
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