Update:Since I first posted this, Amazon got back to me with some precise answers to my questions on pricing. This makes it clear that foreign users will pay a premium for downloading books on the Kindle, since the company is hiking the price on every book in the store. More details here.
When Amazon announced the new "international" version of the Kindle ebook reader earlier this week, there were plenty of questions. How did it work? Why was it being launched through Amazon.com and not local versions like Amazon.co.uk? And, most importantly, who was paying for you to download your books wirelessly?
Some of those questions were answered - but the last one was most perplexing.
After all, Amazon said that it was operating its wireless Whispernet service in partnership with American network AT&T. Since AT&T doesn't have foreign outposts - just roaming deals with foreign mobile providers - that means every time a foreign Kindle owner buys a book wirelessly, they're effectively downloading at international roaming rates.
That means - if we take AT&T's official roaming rates of $0.0195 per kilobyte of data over a GPRS connection - that it costs an astonishing $23.40 (£14.60) for the average 1.2MB book.
Initial fears were that British users (and people in other countries) would have to pay exorbitant download fees. But apparently not: the company insists foreign users won't pay download charges. And although I can't imagine Amazon or AT&T is paying anything like that insane $23 figure, it's clear that somebody is footing some extra bill somewhere along the line.
So who is subsidising this international expansion?
Turns out that - at least in part - it's American Kindle users who use the service while abroad.
According to a report by our colleagues at PaidContent, and an eagle-eyed comment from reader GC Day, American users who buy their reading material while in foreign lands will pay a premium.
Books will cost an extra $2 (£1.24) while newspapers and magazines will cost an additional $5 (£3.11) on top of the asking price.
With a current-generation Kindle able to store around 1,500 books that means a user who filled their device with titles bought while outside the US would end up paying $3,000 more for their library. Or if you were an American with a subscription to, say, the Financial Times, it would cost you an extra 50% on the $9.99 monthly price.
Other prices are higher too, including a $1 per megabyte charge for other documents (up from 15 cents per megabyte inside the US, itself an increase from the original flat fee of 10 cents per document).
Sounds a little crazy to me, but it's right, according to the fine print at the bottom of this page.
So what does this all mean?
Well, to me it could indicate that Amazon is making such a killing on Kindle downloads that it can more or less subsidise the international costs. Or that roaming data charges are so ludicrously high that a $2 fee covers what would usually cost you $23. Or a mixture of the two.
Whatever the case, a spokesman for Amazon.co.uk said that the international roaming price for American users doesn't have any affect on British customers.
"Wireless delivery is included in the price of the book for international customers," he said. "There are no additional fees for international customers. US customers will pay a nominal additional fee when travelling outside of the US to cover the additional operating costs outside of the US. As always, we will continue to look for ways to cut costs and pass those savings along to our customers."
I'm sure they're glad to hear it.
