Trans-Tasman mobile phone roaming charges should fall after the Australian government released details of its proposed crackdown on "sky high" international tariffs.
Consumer groups welcomed the plan, which would see the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and its New Zealand counterpart (the NZCC) handed new powers to impose caps on roaming fees.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) said "sky high" global roaming margins should be brought "back down to earth".
"While the telcos have recently made some encouraging moves on selected plans, ultimately the margins the telcos make off Australians overseas remain exorbitant," the network's CEO Teresa Corbin said in a statement.
"ACCAN research found some consumers fork out over $50 for 1MB of data while overseas."
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull released the draft legislation in Australia, while parallel proposals are expected to be tabled in New Zealand within weeks.
The Australian plan includes handing the ACCC powers to monitor and regulate roaming charges, along with powers to ensure compliance with the planned regime.
The draft legislation also provides scope for the trans-Tasman arrangement to be extended to other countries with existing bilateral agreements with Australia and New Zealand.
The ACCC is expected to conduct a public inquiry to determine the difference between roaming prices and domestic prices before the new regime takes effect.
ACCAN published research last year showing that Australian consumers face wildly varying roaming charges, ranging from $3.50 for a text message down to 38 cents.
Data costs range from a whopping $51.20/MB down to 50 cents/MB.
ACCAN said buying and using a local SIM card remains the best option for many travellers.
Australia's largest telco, Telstra, has said its charges have fallen since a joint Aussie-Kiwi report into roaming costs was published in February 2013.
Telstra has also introduced new SMS alerts giving customers specific pricing details for each country they roam in and alerts for every 20MB of data they use.
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