International roaming fee reductions are aimed at the wallets of people traveling abroad

When traveling abroad, you always have to rent wifi in advance, and your phone is usually set to flight mode after leaving the country, which can easily delay things. If you are not careful, the overseas data charges can make you sell your house. First China Mobile and then China Unicom announced a significant reduction in international roaming charges, and operators are looking for new profit points among the people traveling abroad.

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Operators target overseas tourists

No more renting WiFi without changing SIM card

Nowadays, everyone cannot live without 4G network and WiFi. Friends who travel abroad will rent a portable WiFi in advance or apply for a local mobile phone card after arriving to enjoy 4G network services. During the trip, they only dare to set their mobile phones to flight mode to connect to the portable WiFi alone; or change the sim card to a local card. In this way, any text messages and contacts in China will not be received. Although WeChat can be used to contact, it sometimes delays things.

You can enjoy the 4G network provided by docomo in Japan with a mobile phone card

I personally experienced this trip to Japan. I accidentally turned off the flight mode, and then the China Mobile icon in the upper left corner turned into "docomo". I received various text messages from China. Among them, "10086" sent a text message saying that you have enjoyed international roaming service, unlimited traffic for 30 yuan a day, and no charge for traffic less than 30M on the day. Now you don't have to rent WiFi or apply for a local sim card when you go out for travel. 30 yuan a day is not very expensive. After all, renting a Japanese portable WiFi costs 20 yuan a day, and if Ant Credit does not reach 500 points, you have to pay another 500 yuan deposit.

Sky-high international roaming charges will disappear

In the past, I didn’t dare to use my own SIM card to surf the Internet abroad because I was afraid of the sky-high roaming charges. I often see news reports that tourists who travel abroad use their mobile phones for a day and spend tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan on bills after returning home, and they even want to sell their houses to pay for the fees. In order to implement the government’s “speed up and reduce fees” policy, after the international roaming fees are reduced, users no longer have to worry about the sky-high cost bomb.

Many people are cheated by sky-high roaming charges

China Unicom has seen the largest reduction in international roaming charges, with an average reduction of 44% and a maximum reduction of 79%. In October last year, the three major operators had already begun to study international roaming speed-up and fee reduction services. The three major operators have unanimously chosen to cap the charges by day, 35-35 yuan per day, and then unlimited data usage. Currently, more than 100 countries and regions have been opened to facilitate users traveling abroad.

It is easy to take money from tourists

Why are the three major operators willing to make such concessions to provide users who travel abroad with a more convenient choice? First, let's take a look at the charges for the first choice of Internet access for overseas travelers - portable WiFi. Assuming you travel to Japan for a week, the cost of a day's portable WiFi is 20 yuan, 20*7=140 yuan, and the deposit is 500 yuan, a total of 640 yuan (the deposit will be returned when the device is returned). Now that you don't need to rent a portable WiFi, the fee is 30 yuan a day, 30*7=210 yuan. It is 70 yuan more expensive overall, and you need to pay a deposit for 7 days to borrow and return the device. Roaming without these procedures is more convenient.

Moreover, these portable WiFi suppliers need to purchase SIM cards from local operators, and the money is paid to foreign operators. The 500 yuan deposit can also make their cash flow more abundant. After all, there were 130 million outbound tourists in 2017. Assuming that only one-tenth of them rent portable WiFi, there are still 13 million people. If the deposit is 500 yuan for each device, the deposit will be 6.5 billion yuan.

International roaming charges reduced

With such a large market, the three major operators will certainly actively participate. After all, it is not easy to make money from domestic traffic now, and turning to tourists traveling abroad and taking money from their pockets will be a new growth point for the business. After all, people traveling abroad are relatively wealthy, and they can still afford unlimited traffic for 30 yuan a day. If one-tenth of the 130 million people traveling abroad use international roaming services, then there will be a market of 3.9 billion yuan.

Conclusion:

When traveling abroad, posting to Moments, Weibo, or Douyin, and checking local food, drink, and entertainment information has become a daily routine. In response to the previous headache of data traffic, the three major operators have now significantly reduced international roaming fees. While tourists no longer have to worry about sky-high data traffic fees, the three major operators have also found new business growth points.