The Pros and Cons of Data Roaming

By Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica

While data roaming is undoubtedly a useful service, which enables subscribers to stay connected to their email and favorite apps whilst travelling, it has also gained a reputation for its costliness.

Mobile operators have made great progress in developing affordable tariff packages for bundled data. This provides subscribers with transparency, allowing them to use mobile data without the fear of exceeding their budget. Unfortunately, these bundled deals aren't available the moment subscribers roam with a partner network, and they are charged for data usage at a per-kilobyte rate.

The challenge to operators, specifically in emerging markets, is that with the cost of data roaming being prohibitively expensive, subscribers experience self-imposed online blackouts - not because of technology, but because of cost!

About Synchronica

Synchronica plc is a leading developer of next-generation mobile messaging solutions based on open industry standards. The award-winning product portfolio includes the flagship product Mobile Gateway, providing push email, synchronization, instant messaging (IM), backup and restore, and mobile connectivity to social networks. Synchronica's products are white-labeled and offered by mobile operators in emerging and developed markets to provide mass market messaging services, increasing data revenues and reducing churn.

Synchronica Mobile Gateway provides a unique multi-protocol gateway combining Push IMAP, SyncML, ActiveSync, Email to MMS, and Email to SMS, delivering push email and synchronization to literally any mobile phone currently in the market without requiring an additional client to be downloaded. Expanding instant messaging to mobile devices, Mobile Gateway establishes carrier-branded IM communities, using the industry standard XMPP and provides gateways to popular internet IM communities, connecting any IMPS-enabled handset.

Headquartered in England, Synchronica also maintains a development center in Germany in addition to a regional presence in the USA, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC). For further information, please visit www.synchronica.com

For more information, please contact:

David Clark
Tel.: +44 1892 5527 20
Fax: +44 1892 5527 21
david.clark@synchronica.com