Vodafone UK set to revamp MBB roaming rates

I know, I know, this is turning into a Vodafone blog...but bear with me.

It looks like Vodafone UK is going roaming crazy. Having shaken things up with the abolition of roaming charges for voice across 35 markets it is turning its attention to MBB. According to an article in ISPReview VF UK is scrapping its current international tariffs, the £60/month Euro Travel and the £95/month World Travel, which carry 200MB of data, due to "lack of take up". I'll wait with interest to see what they'll replace them with.

Vodafone seems to be one of the few operators that's actually paying attention to the enterprise MBB market in the UK at the moment. A few days ago I commented on their revision of their standard enterprise tariff. Everyone else seems to have forgotten about the good old businessman in pursuit of the burgeoning consumer market. A lot of that is to do with the fact that all those good old businessmen are abandoning the expensive business tariffs and "consumerising", or "choosing the cheaper option" as I prefer to call it. As a result, signing up a business user doesn't generate a lot more revenue than a consumer and they tend to be more difficult to get.

What's required, of course, is some way to differentiate the business offering to get those price insensitive users to pay more. The obvious option is differentiated grade of service, but that will be a few years down the line. It'll be necessary though. In the meantime, MNOs need to look at features that business users appreciate. Roaming is clearly one and it could do with a revamp.

Over the next 3 months I'll be focusing quite a bit on both enterprise MBB and the ways to differentiate MBB services. Keep an eye out for the reports.