I can't live without my BlackBerry, my lifeline to work, family and friends. So, I take it with me when I travel.

To avoid bill shock, I buy a data travel pack. That's what I did before going to Florida in March, paying $30 for a U.S. data travel pack.

My plan included 10 MB of data, enough to send or receive 5,140 emails from a BlackBerry Bold, according to Rogers.

That should be enough for a six-day trip, I thought. Then, I got my bill.

I found I'd used another 11.5 MB of data which, at $3 an MB, cost me $33.68, on top of my initial $30 purchase.

How did this happen? Why are data roaming costs so high, even with a plan?

The SeaBoard Group, a telecom consulting firm based in Montreal, put out a report this month urging Industry Canada to cap the cost of data roaming, as the European Union has done.

"Mobile-roaming rules for data have yet to be worked out," it says. "Customers use data services in a non-home area at their peril. Horror stories of multi-$1,000 mobile data roaming bills abound."

The European Union established price ceilings on voice and data roaming in 2009, capping charges across the continent at 50 Euros per month. Customers no longer had to worry about bill shock. Usage soared.

Canada has not followed the EU lead. Nor has it adopted the tamer U.S. approach to regulation. It's done nothing.

In the absence of regulation on data roaming, the market will decide what happens. And that will hurt consumers, SeaBoard warns.

Incumbent carriers "will be tempted to throw their weight around, to try to use their size, their investment clout and their networks to define the future and to insist that their vision prevail..

"The ability of new entrants to attract customers with more flexible pricing plans will be curtailed.

"To put it bluntly, it will be very difficult for any of the new operators (Wind Mobile, Mobilicity, Videotron et al) to continue their targeted marketing campaigns based on highly competitive prices when a larger incumbent player is the one controlling their costs and defining what they can, and cannot, do."

This is depressingly familiar. We're seeing the same trends in Internet service. That's why the protest against usage-based billing struck a chord earlier this year.

Industry Canada needs to identify data roaming as a key element in Canada's wireless marketplace, the report urges. And it should look at establishing a wholesale price for wireless roaming among Canadian carriers.

It also offers advice for incumbent carriers: Don't use data roaming to recreate your formerly dominant position. Don't appear to be too greedy, too exploitive of your privileges, or you run the risk of provoking government to an even wider scope of action.

Balance is being sought in Canada's new mobile marketplace. Any attempt to restore the old order could be met with aggressive government response.

As for me, I'm annoyed with Rogers and I'm asking for a break on my U.S. data roaming charges. From my experience, leniency is often extended to a first-time offender.

It's not just that I chose the wrong data travel pack. It's also that my carrier didn't help me make an informed choice.

Data roaming is the new frontier for gouging. Let's keep fighting to keep prices down.

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