Trying to get internet access on your mobile devices when you’re traveling can be just as frustrating as it is expensive for you for carriers, it’s big business. It’s estimated that service providers could earn as much as $42 billion in the next 4 years thanks to data roaming charges alone.
A new report from Juniper Research has estimated that carriers could expect a huge payout from our data roaming charges by 2018. Data roaming applies when you access the internet on your mobile device whilst you’re outside of your coverage zone, so even an act as simple as checking your internet could have you paying through the nose. If you’re a Verizon client, you could pay as much as $25 for only 100MB of roaming data, whilst a 120MB internet connection will cost you $30 from AT&T.
Even worse than the outright price of data roaming charges is that you might not even realize that you’re racking up a high tab until your bill arrives. Make sure all your data options are switched off from your phone’s settings menu before you get on that plane, or you might be in for a nasty surprise later and try to keep off the internet for a while.
