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Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

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Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#31

Post by StavrosK »

rsynnott wrote: post #20
mrweasel wrote: post #14

Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out. They simply remove EU roaming from their standard subscriptions and it now becomes an add-on. So if you want to use your phone in a different country during the holidays, you'll need an EU roaming subscription. The politicians once again failed to be sufficient precise in formulating a law that would produce the decided result. They should have added a clause that state…

Telecoms in at least some countries are already having to back down on that due to regulator pressure.

Everything fine in Greece too. In fact, I've been using this for free for a year+ because my telco decided to include it in my (high-price, 20 eur/mo) plan for free earlier than planned.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#32

Post by rsynnott »

Klathmon wrote: post #10
halloij wrote: post #4

So the cost incurred will be passed on to everyone in higher fees. eg people who never "roam" are going to be subsidising those people that do. A negative move spun as a positive... clever EU, clever.

Ignoring the argument on whether having everyone subsidising the few for some things is good or bad, does it even apply here? Does "roaming" really cost anywhere near what they charge for it? Or does it only cost that because they could all charge each other that in hopes to make out with a little on top?

No, these days, in most cases, it costs them very little, and often nothing. If you're on a Vodafone or Telefonica network, then the network you're roaming on is probably also owned by Vodafone or Telefonica. Even where you have to roam on an unrelated network, the price difference has never made any sense.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#33

Post by vesinisa »

halloij wrote: post #9
glebm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roaming costs are price gouging, the associated costs of providing roaming are nowhere near.

There is still a cost. And that cost is going to be passed on to everyone whether you use it or not.

The abolishing of roaming charges also applies between operators. As the true technical cost for roaming is negligible there is really no passing of charges from those who use it to those who don't.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#34

Post by dao- »

mrweasel wrote: post #14

Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out. They simply remove EU roaming from their standard subscriptions and it now becomes an add-on. So if you want to use your phone in a different country during the holidays, you'll need an EU roaming subscription. The politicians once again failed to be sufficient precise in formulating a law that would produce the decided result. They should have added a clause that state…

> Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out

What are "the telcos"? I just got an SMS from Vodafone announcing that from now on, I won't pay roaming fees in EU countries.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#35

Post by JoeCamel »

rdl wrote: post #17

What is the correct European SIM to buy for data/voice/etc. (prepaid)? Presumably best to get one from a country you don't actually visit much, so you're always roaming, and thus don't pay the home to foreign number charges?

There is of course fair use policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulat...

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#36

Post by datalink »

matteuan wrote: post #16
halloij wrote: post #4

So the cost incurred will be passed on to everyone in higher fees. eg people who never "roam" are going to be subsidising those people that do. A negative move spun as a positive... clever EU, clever.

Not necessary true! There is a huge disparity between the cost of these services to the companies and the price for the users. This means that there is still space for regulation.

Thats not true in many cases. The wholesale price cap is 7.70€ /GB. This is the price telcos have to pay other telcos for their users roaming. And this is more expensive than end-user price in the nordics/baltic region.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#37

Post by lloeki »

glebm wrote: post #6
halloij wrote: post #4

So the cost incurred will be passed on to everyone in higher fees. eg people who never "roam" are going to be subsidising those people that do. A negative move spun as a positive... clever EU, clever.

Roaming costs are price gouging, the associated costs of providing roaming are nowhere near.

Example: less than a year ago I was charged ~40€ for viewing two wikipedia pages, one of them happening to contain a short video. My bad sure since I forgot to disable roaming, but this is obviously outrageous pricing, so I really don't buy the subsidising point of the naysayers.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#39

Post by imartin2k »

mrweasel wrote: post #14

Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out. They simply remove EU roaming from their standard subscriptions and it now becomes an add-on. So if you want to use your phone in a different country during the holidays, you'll need an EU roaming subscription. The politicians once again failed to be sufficient precise in formulating a law that would produce the decided result. They should have added a clause that state…

You are probably way too negative. Yeah, some telcos are looking for ways around it, and some plans will become a bit more expensive, temporarily. However, there is healthy competetion in most European telecoms markets. So it is very likely that over the mid term, competition will push prices down.

Why is it so damn hard to be happy about a giant step forward, just because it doesn't happen in the most perfect way? (what does?!).

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#40

Post by halloij »

ko27 wrote: post #22
halloij wrote: post #4

So the cost incurred will be passed on to everyone in higher fees. eg people who never "roam" are going to be subsidising those people that do. A negative move spun as a positive... clever EU, clever.

Wrong. If tourist movement is spread out across Europe equally, then mostly nobody will need to subsidize anything, since the mobile operators will be paying each other. Of course, cost per GB is different in some regions, but interestingly most popular tourist places are on the Mediterranean where data plans cost less.

> If tourist movement is spread out across Europe equally

It's not.

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