Enterpise Mobility Summit 2013: Mobile data optimisation is key to avoiding roaming data shocks, says Wandera

£81k India roaming charge and other 'bill shocks' are warning to all, says Tuvey

Horror stories of enterprise roaming data bills reaching $126,000 (£81,000) should be a wake-up call to IT managers working on enterprise mobility schemes, according to the founder of mobile data optimisation (MDO) company Wandera.

Roy Tuvey, founder and president of Wandera, told the audience at Computing's Enterprise Mobility Summit 2013 today that many companies are already viewing MDO as "an increasingly integral part of their enterprise mobility strategy".

Tuvey said that 15-20 per cent of the UK's workforce now roams outside the country, adding that the global market for mobile data is now worth $45bn (£29bn).

In two years, said Tuvey, the industry is set to be worth $67bn (£43.1bn), and two thirds of this spend will be in the enterprise sector. Mobile data usage, said Tuvey, grew 133 per cent in 2012 alone, and is set to increase by 12 times by 2018.

Tuvey put the explosion down to three factors: proliferation of mobile devices; the advent of 4G and faster broadband encouraging web service designers to create more data-intensive designs; and increasing popularity of online video.

"Data now represents half of all phone carrier revenues," revealed Tuvey.

Tuvey used examples of so-called "bill shock" to make the point that data management is an increasing concern, citing a roaming worker receiving a $22,000 (£14,000) data bill for streaming F1 coverage while abroad, an HD movie stream to a tablet costing $37,000 (£23,700) and a "fizzy drinks company" executive being saddled with a $126,000 (£81,000) bill for mobile data use on a trip to India.