European Study Finds Waste on Connectivity Costs
February 04, 2014
By Rory J. Thompson, Web Editor
A new look at how much European workers spend to get connected when traveling for business has raised questions as to whether the same issue is happening on our shores.
According to the “Wi-Fi Cost Index Report” from iPass (News - Alert), a leading provider of mobile services for enterprises and telecom service providers, European businesses are overspending by at least 50 percent because workers are not properly managing their connectivity charges.
“During 2012, European business travelers made 65.1 million international business trips with an average spend on essential connectivity per trip, per traveler, of EUR 89.23 ($121 US) when traveling within Europe, EUR 155.41 ($210) when traveling to the U.S.. and EUR 167.27 ($226) to Asia,” iPass said in a release. “This means that a minimum of EUR 5.8 billion ($7.8 billion) was spent in 2012 by European business travelers merely to get online. In contrast, enabling business travelers with a global Wi-Fi network would realize savings of at least 50 percent, as documented by the Wi-Fi Cost Index report. That’s equivalent to EUR 2.9 billion ($3.9 billion) per year.”
"Mobile working has become ingrained in the fabric of many businesses, yet even in today's cost-cutting environment, businesses are wasting money unnecessarily by failing to manage connectivity services and costs for their business travelers when working abroad,” said Rene Hendrikse, the VP of Europe, the Middle East and Asia for iPass. “Business travelers expect connectivity across multiple devices wherever they go, in order to work productively. Failure to see connectivity as an essential part of business travel is badly bruising business' wallets," she added.
The Wi-Fi Cost Index calculated the actual costs of connectivity for business travelers and the impact of unchecked mobile data roaming costs. When roaming, the average business traveler will use 3G/4G 40 percent of the time within the EU, and 30 percent of the time outside the EU; the rest of the time they use Wi-Fi, the Index found.
For more information, you can download the iPass Wi-Fi Cost Index HERE.
Edited by Blaise McNamee