BARCELONA – Sandvine says audio and video streaming now accounts for 28% of roaming on a tier-1 European mobile network. As the popularity of streamed sporting events grows it predicts that the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will become the most streamed event in history. It cautions though that without necessary roaming plans or notifications in place it may also “lead to the most widespread case of bill shock to date.”
Sandvine says bill shock can be mitigated by communications service provider (CSP) efforts to educate and inform customers that typical roaming charges are accrued based on data usage and can quickly add up. For example, a three-minute YouTube video uses approximately 10MB of data which would cost a subscriber on average 7€ to watch while roaming in Europe.
"Controlling the risk for bill shock by tightening the connection between CSPs and subscribers is a win-win for everyone," said Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine. "Mobile operators gain the loyalty of their subscribers and new revenue opportunities through tiered services and subscribers gain personalized tiers and roaming capabilities without the risk of unknown charges."
As demonstrated at O2 UK (April 2011), a Telefonica subsidiary, Sandvine's Usage Management product monitors subscriber roaming usage in real-time and proactively keeps subscribers informed of their usage through automated messages that notify subscribers when they are nearing and surpassing their data limit. The European Union was among the first regions to introduce bill shock notification regulations, back in 2007 and implementation occurred over several years.
Regulations aimed at mitigating bill shock have surfaced in Latin American, as the GSMA recently launched a roaming transparency initiative. The initiative is supported by operator groups including América Móvil, Antel, Entel Chile, Millicom, Oi, Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefónica.
