Cheaper Roaming Data Rates in AsiaPac

While roaming overseas, if you are not already aware, roaming data rates are prevalently high in most countries. This is probably with the exception of the EU mobile operators who are coming under pressure to drop their roaming data rates. An example of how much data costs per MB (standard unit), 1 MB of data can cost as much as €5 ~ €10 or (S$10 ~ S$20) when roaming. That's rather steep when compared to domestic rates, in the case of Singapore, as low as S$3.50 per MB or even available as unlimited plans.

If you are someone who likes to make use of apps such as mobile msn, push mail/Blackberry etc, unless it is paid for by your company, you might want to prevent a bill shock while roaming! This is particularly true if you have a fancy HSPA/ 3G phone, and you start streaming clips and end up chalking thousands of dollars.

There's options if you are from countries such as Thailand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore as there are two roaming data plans launched of late by 2 regional mobile alliances - Bridge Mobile and Conexus Mobile Alliance. Both alliances offer a means of managing and having better control for users on their roaming data usage, in the form of monthly subscription and daily paid plans.


Bridge DataRoam works as a data bundle, offering either 15MB or 40MB on a monthly subscription model for users belonging to Bridge Member Operators only. For about US$2 per MB, or about S$3 per MB, you can enjoy using the data bundle at rates lower than some domestic rates today (at least 80% discount off roaming rates assuming US$15 per MB). The only catch is that you have to make sure that you roam onto the participating networks today, and that the monthly subscription would run even if you don't use it. However, it presents great value if you travel often to these countries and need always on data connectivity =] The bummer is that excess data will be charged based at the actual roaming rates.

In retaliation, or perhaps having similar sentiments in lowering roaming data rates, rival alliance Conexus announced on 31 Mar a flat daily data rate plan. Conexus promises users a capped rate of S$30 per day for data used when roaming on participating Conexus partners. So does this represent better value than DataRoam?

Let's see - the current roaming rates for Conexus partners is S$0.01 per KB or about S$10 per MB. With the capped daily rate plan, if you chalk up a bill of less than S$30 or use less than 3MB, you end up paying the same rate of S$10 per MB or US$7MB. To match the US$2 per MB offer by Bridge, you have to use at least 10MB within the same day (that's about 200 emails @ 50KB per mail on your Blackberry, kinda hefty) . And the next day, your usage gets resetted and accumulated again!!! By the way, the usage counter gets resetted based on Singapore time no matter which Conexus partner you are on!!!

Looking at both offers on the plate now, an average business traveller who works in the region might find it more worthwhile to signup for a monthly plan that allows him to use the bundled data at any time/day of the month (Heck the time check!). The savings from the Bridge plan are huge. The Conexus offer provides more value if you're a very heavy user while roaming. Then again, if you are using very little data, you are getting better pay-per-use value if you are with a Conexus operator roaming on their partner networks @S$10 per MB. Vs S$22 per MB if you are with a Bridge operator roaming on partner networks.

Of course the country where the plan is offered (remember its only at selected countries) and your own data consumption rate would probably swing your decision to one or the other, or just pay-per-use. But for now, I probably just keep my data usage minimal while roaming =]