Austrian roaming in EU falls to lowest level for 3 years in Q1 2021 ⋆

Austrian roaming in EU falls to lowest level for 3 years in Q1 2021

Austrians made 129 million minutes of phone calls in other EU countries in the first quarter of 2021, the lowest figure on an annual basis compared with the last three years, because the pandemic led to fewer international business trips, and because people traditionally do not go on vacation in that period, according to Austrian regulator RTR. More news about Austria roaming 2021 find out below.

Covid-19: home instead of roam austria roaming 2021

The severe restrictions Covid-19 placed on travel activities during the year resulted in a sharp fall in the use of roaming services. ‘Roaming’ refers to mobile phone use while abroad. Figure 1 presents the trends for roaming data consumption for the reporting year by Austrian consumers both inside and outside the EU.
Seasonal variation in usage means that a comparison of annual roaming figures is more meaningful than
comparing quarter-on-quarter changes.

While figures for the previous year showed a year-on-year rise for consumption, figures for Q2/20 compared with Q2/19 revealed a decline of 59 per cent. Even a comparison of Q3/19 with Q3/20, when travel restrictions were largely relaxed, shows a decline of 21 per cent.

roaming austria
A steep decline was also seen in minutes and texts. Voice minutes consumed abroad (inside and outside the
EU) fell by 40 per cent from Q2/19 to Q2/20 and by 21 per cent from Q3/19 to Q3/20. Text use had already been
declining in the years before 2020, since instant messaging services are now increasingly being used instead
of sending texts while roaming (as within Austria itself).