A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MANAGING INTERNATIONAL ROAMING COSTS

How can bill shock be prevented?

Preventing “bill shock” from those horrendously high mobile bills after international trips – comes down to proactive cost management. Here are several measures businesses can implement immediately to manage mobile roaming costs and avoid nasty surprises:

Adopt roaming-inclusive plans

As previously mentioned, one of the most effective safeguards is to switch employees to an all-inclusive roaming tariff designed for frequent travellers. These plans charge a fixed monthly fee for either unlimited or generous usage abroad. With all-inclusive roaming plans you’ve essentially eliminated the possibility of bill shock from roaming. If much of your bill shock risk comes from a handful of frequent flyers, moving them to all inclusive roaming plan containing all charges in the fixed monthly fee is a quick win.

Set spending caps and alerts

Ensure that your mobile provider enables spending caps on all lines, this is not something they do as standard unless it’s requested. In the UK, carriers often let you put a monthly cap on out-of-plan charges (for example, no more than a fixed extra amount per month without prior authorisation). If an employee hits the cap, data service is cut off or slowed, preventing further charges. Additionally, your IT team can configure alerts so email/SMS notifications can be automatically sent when a user’s roaming data usage approaches a threshold (e.g. 80% of a defined limit). Caps and alerts create a safety net: even if someone accidentally streams a film on 4G abroad, the damage is limited and you’ll be notified in time to react.

Enforce a clear roaming policy

A well-defined mobile usage policy for travel is critical as without this the risk of bill shock increases. This policy should inform employees what they must do to avoid extra costs whilst travelling for example, “connect to Wi-Fi for data-heavy tasks,” “use approved apps for calls,” “disable data roaming unless absolutely needed.” It should also specify any required approvals for high data use or purchasing roaming bundles.

If the finance team (rather than sales) set expectations in advance and training employees on these guidelines (or even holding pre-travel briefings), you greatly reduce accidental misuse and hold employees to account. Ensure you include in the policy some education about how typical business apps consume data; for instance, warn that cloud file syncing or video streaming while roaming is costly so they should seek alternatives (like waiting for Wi-Fi). When everyone is on the same page, the risk of bill shock drops and accountability increases.

Leverage technology controls (MDM)

Don’t rely solely on humans to remember the policy and the rules. We strongly recommend you use technology to enforce them. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software can be your automated enforcer. With MDM, you can remotely apply settings to company phones that help prevent excess usage. For example, you could restrict certain apps to Wi-Fi only when the device is abroad.

If you’re streaming video or large downloads aren’t critical for the job, an MDM policy can block those apps from using cellular data when roaming. You can also throttle data-intensive activities via MDM, or schedule device updates to only occur on Wi-Fi. Some MDM tools also show you how much data each device is using in near real-time. If you see one employee’s usage skyrocketing, you can investigate immediately (maybe they need an emergency top-up or maybe they’re misusing the device). Essentially, technology like MDM acts as a 24/7 guardrail: it enforces your policies and provides visibility, greatly reducing the chance for bill shock caused by human error or ignorance. For those of you who use a managed service provider, they will manage this on your behalf.

Promote Wi-Fi and offline usage

Often, the simplest way to cut roaming costs is to not use the mobile network at all. Encourage and enable employees to use Wi-Fi whenever available – for instance, using hotel or office Wi-Fi for sending large reports or doing video calls. Before you do this and to ensure the connection is secure we strongly recommend you set up company VPNs or other tools so that staff can safely use public Wi-Fi for work (with proper security caution). Many smartphones also support Wi-Fi Calling, enabling standard phone calls to be made over an internet connection with no charge. This feature only works if its enabled on their devices and included as part of your policy

Use local connectivity options when sensible

If your company hasn’t yet invested in all-inclusive plans for everyone, or you are a smaller business, you can still avoid pay-per-use roaming by planning for local solutions. Local SIM cards or eSIM data packs can be purchased for the destination country. For example, before a team heads to a conference overseas, the IT team might provide each person with a prepaid local SIM or a list of recommended eSIM providers for that country. The cost of a local 5GB data pack might be a fraction of the roaming equivalent. By proactively provisioning these alternatives, employees won’t have the excuse of “I had to turn on roaming because I had no other internet.” They’ll already be set up with a cost-contained solution.

Each of these measures contributes to a comprehensive approach to never experience bill shock again. Many businesses find that it’s the combination of solutions, a good tariff plus a decent policy plus a good mobile device management solution truly locks down their costs.