With European Telecommunications Commissioner Neelie Kroes due to reveal plans to cut data roaming charges today, and Ofcom also due to reveal the results of its study on bill shock among UK consumers who are on the receiving end of unexpectedly high phone bills, mobile data specialist Acision is calling on mobile operators to do more to ensure that bill shock – at home or abroad – becomes a thing of the past.

“Exorbitant charges for using communications services abroad have caught the attention of the media and led the regulators to intervene on pricing,” notes Jonathan Pearson, proposition manager, real-time charging at Acision. “The bad publicity causes negative perceptions of the brands and regulatory directives force them to reduce prices, a step that O2 and Vodafone have already taken.

“Furthermore third party applications such as Onavo, are positioning themselves as helping consumers get more out of their iPhone and iPad data plans. These issues have a direct impact on the costs and revenue of an operator, and give a clear indication there is much more that can be done to compete on customer experience.”

Pearson says the situation presents opportunities for operators, enabling them to take steps to rebuild confidence in their brands by providing greater transparency and more control through spend limits and real-time notifications. Furthermore, says Pearson this could present a revenue opportunity. Research carried out by Acision found that 42 per cent of consumers believe that having spend limits will encourage them to make greater use of mobile services while roaming, and 41 per cent are happy to pay for real-time notifications.

“Operators could improve pricing transparency by offering bundles for a specific type of service, such as roaming, web browsing or video downloading,” says Pearson. “This allows users to budget, and can include real-time notifications about how much they are spending and when they are nearing their spend limit, as well as offering the opportunity for the user to top up their bundle.

“We’re experiencing a shift in the communications paradigm, the catalyst of which is the move to an IP-based communications services environment. Operators are in a unique position to profit from IP services explosion by exploiting the assets at their disposal and combining real-time charging, policy management, data enforcement and intelligent optimisation to deliver the differentiated offers and personal quality of experience that consumers want.”