Despite improvements in service and coverage, IMR charges have consistently remained high. At
the 7th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Telecommunications and Information Industry, the economies in attendance noted that IMR charges are an important factor in facilitating crossborder communication services and are thus relevant to the APEC Leaders’ regional economic integration agenda. At the 38th APEC TEL meeting, the attendees approved Australia’s proposal to conduct a survey on issues related to international mobile roaming in the APEC region.Survey results were presented in an information sharing workshop held during the 39th APEC TEL meeting in 2009.28 During this meeting, participants agreed to work towards developing a set of guidelines to assist economies in providing consumers with access to the information necessary to make informed decisions about how to avoid receiving high and unexpected IMR charges.