iPass Mobile Workers Report Finds Employees Unhappy with Roaming Charges

Provider of mobility services for enterprises and telecom service providers, iPass Inc., recently published its quarterly Mobile Workforce Report, which states that 43 percent of mobile workers reported an expensive data bill in the past year. On average, these mobile workers tend to encounter a high data roaming bill 1.4 times per year. The average cost of these roaming data bills was found to be a whopping $1,089.

Unsurprisingly, 81 percent of mobile workers surveyed stated that they think data roaming prices are too high, while 23 percent said they always turn off data roaming while travelling. Meanwhile, 80 percent of mobile workers said they prefer to use Wi-Fi networks while travelling, with 85 percent stating they want their companies to provide a Wi-Fi access plan for out-of-office use.

"For today's mobile worker, connectivity is oxygen. Prohibitively high mobile data roaming charges are killing mobile worker productivity and people are afraid to turn on their cellular devices," said Evan Kaplan, chief executive officer at iPass, in a statement.

Adding, "Enterprise IT and mobile operators have the power to keep mobile workers productive and efficient by providing seamless access to critical data and rich applications on Wi-Fi as a complement to cellular data plans at a tiny fraction of the cost, maybe then people will then turn on their smartphones while roaming."

The iPass Mobile Workforce Report is published quarterly. This report was based on a survey of about 1,200 mobile enterprise employees around the globe administered during July.

Recently, iPass announced that its iPass Open Mobile service was selected by Harmonic, a top company in the video delivery infrastructure sector. Open Mobile offers seamless Wi-Fi connectivity to a company's workforce, allowing employees to be globally mobile from any device. Both secure and cost effective, Open Mobile also provides access to the world's largest commercial Wi-Fi network of over one million Wi-Fi hotspots.

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