If you set up roaming and take your number abroad then you might be well aware that it’s not exactly cheap, charges vary depending on the country you’re going to and the services you need there, but it goes without saying that many of us would appreciate not having to pay roaming charges when using our number abroad. Instant messaging and VoIP apps have fixed this to some extent but still there are many scenarios where one might need to get roaming activated.
Apple’s senior vice president Eddy Cue has mentioned in an interview that the company is trying to “fix” roaming charges, he talked about how he’s trying to avoid roaming charges while he’s in London, adding that it’s said and that “We’re trying to fix it and we’re making a little bit of progress but you’ve got to convince a lot of people.”
This is a vague statement from Cue who doesn’t explain in the interview precisely how Apple is going to fix roaming charges, it’s not running a mobile carrier and even though it was rumored at one point that Apple might be interested in its own MVNO, the company shot down those rumors and said that it has no plans to come up with its own mobile service.
Apple has made some moves recently to bypass carriers, it launched the Apple SIM last year for iPads with cellular connectivity which allows users to switch mobile networks without having to swap out SIM cards. It has been reported that Apple is looking to work with the industry to make this technology standard and call it an e-SIM.
Still, this doesn’t reveal how Apple will fix roaming charges, and Cue was careful not to expand on that in the interview.