According to information from international communications enabler BICS, Asian roaming traffic is most definitely on the up, growing by 245% in the past 12 months.
The data was sourced from BICS’ global network, which, the company says, connects over 700 operators and 500 digital service providers and carries over 50% of global data roaming traffic.
The information shows a significant increase in Asian roaming traffic – both in and out of the region. BIC suggests that the huge uplift is being driven by increased adoption of roaming, new tariff plans, travel SIMs and IoT devices across the continent (including BICS’ own ‘SIM for Things’ offering).
BICS has also reported that in the first quarter of 2019 outbound roaming traffic from Asia to Europe and the Middle East increased by 88%, compared to Q1 2018. Inbound roaming volumes from the same regions grew by 81%, reflecting continued demand for mobile services abroad from tourists and business travellers.
Of course, roaming is growing pretty much everywhere. In January BICS revealed figures indicating that global roaming traffic increased by 95% during 2018. BICS anticipates that global data roaming traffic will continue to surge as operators progress 5G roadmaps, driven, not surprisingly, by higher speeds and the global connectivity requirements likely to be a feature of new IoT use cases as 5G is rolled out.
