How many years will I have to wait before something like this happens in Asia... :(

Mmm. So people who don't travel much will be subsidizing those who do? That doesn't seem right somehow.

>Mmm. So people who don't travel much will be subsidizing those who do? That doesn't seem right somehow.

Not quite the way I see it. It's over-priced. It doesn't actually cost any more to make a call, or to download data. What bumps the cost up is the mobile operators inflating the fees between each other. Their gravy train in Europe is about to hit the buffers.

Asia? That's only likely to work if the Asian market comes together.

Just so those that don't know can get an understanding: It's cheaper to buy a reasonable smartphone, with a data package, in the country you're headed to in Europe than it is to pay the additional roaming fees, which, for some, have amounted to hundreds of Euros. Some consumers have come back to phone and data bills of thousands of Euros. In those cases, they probably didn't turn off data (we all know how annoying it is when apps keep phoning home).
Even though I turn off data roaming, I can tell you i've come back to phone bills of many hundreds $$$/£££. That's just for calls.

Agreed, it's not a subsidy at all. This is just cutting off the, some might say exorbitant, profit that carriers are able to reap from customers who venture into other networks.