Australians travelling overseas should have a better experience of mobile roaming following changes to industry standards ordered by the Federal Government and now adopted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Amendments to telecoms standards adopted by ACMA include:

– Letting customers have the choice to opt out of receiving roaming usage alerts;

– Allowing telcos to provide mandatory on-arrival roaming information to travellers in a single SMS rather than in several; and

– Giving telcos more flexibility in the ways they offer customers the ability to decline mobile roaming services while travelling overseas, at no or low cost.

ACMA notes that other improvements in the mobile roaming market in recent years have included introduction of travel packs for overseas data use; a reduction in the cost of calls, SMS and data downloads; and a consequent 57 percent drop in the quarterly rate of new complaints.