Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today • Hacker News Board

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#71

Post by jads » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:01 PM UTC

blibble wrote: post #8

I never saw why this interference in the free market was needed when it was making progress, and in some circumstances already provided solutions to the problem on Three I've had free roaming for years, at no additional cost, across the EU and a good chunk of the rest of the world http://www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home

The actual agreement was done a few years ago, part of which was the "gradual reduction of roaming costs over two years".

Your point about Three is actually a reason why this agreement was needed. Why have none of the other carriers done the same? They have had years to act on this or make some effort to reduce the costs of roaming, yet remained complacent.

Don't assume the actions of one carrier represents all of them. Three is a great carrier but their market share is small compared to others. Other networks likely didn't make any efforts to reduce the costs for customers because they didn't need to. Additionally, Three's motive may be more marketing and attracting new users than simply for the good of their customers.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#72

Post by matthewmacleod » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:01 PM UTC

halloij wrote: post #29

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…

Phew. That's good to know. As someone who has absolutely no desire to ever need "roaming", it's good to know it won't be forced on people.

Since roaming is zero-cost and has no effect on your existing plan, it seems weird that you would object to it.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#73

Post by donquichotte » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:01 PM UTC

panzer_wyrm wrote: post #53

_miroz wrote: post #38

I'm wondering why the regulation was necessary and why the free market forces didn't bring the prices or roaming down? What are the forces in telecom industry that kept the prices so high (assuming that the prices were higher then necessary)?

Cartels/vendor lock in

Indeed! Cartels charging outrageous prices like 0.5€/SMS (roaming) in 2017, that is more than 4000€ per megabyte. I have no idea how the telcos have been able to milk the public for that long. And for Switzerland, there is no end in sight.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#74

Post by martinald » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:01 PM UTC

matthewmacleod wrote: post #55

matteuan wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, there is still one important limitation: we will keep the fees for the traffic from our home countries.

I don't think that the price of foreign calls will be affected – everything is simply charged at the home plan rate. Calling e.g. a French number will cost the same regardless of whether I am in France or the UK.

Incorrect. The regulation only applies when roaming.

To take three UK for example:

  Calling Spain from the UK: 46p/min
  Calling Spain from France while roaming: inclusive in minutes allowance, otherwise 3p/min.

I also checked Vodafone.de and it's the same thing - nearly €1/min if you're in Germany, or inclusive if you're roaming.

It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#75

Post by ptaipale » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:02 PM UTC

JoeCamel wrote: post #51

ptaipale wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, now EU regulates the price to consumers to be lower than the wholesale price of roaming charges between operators. That is a failure. They should regulate the wholesale price. In practice: I pay 20 € per month for unlimited mobile data. If I go to Italy and use my subscription there, I still pay 20 € per month for unlimited mobile data, but my operator has to pay 7 € per gigabyte to the Italian roaming partn…

You should check if your unlimited plan applies to roaming. I have a unlimited data plan in Croatia, but in roaming it's limited to 10 GB.

EU was planning to explicitly regulate against such caps. If you provide unlimited data in your local operator's network, having caps when roaming would be in breach of this regulation.

Has that changed?

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#76

Post by morsch » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:02 PM UTC

pulse7 wrote: post #47

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…

This is not possible! The rule is clear: in every EU country you can use your mobile phone under the same conditions as in your base country (with some minor exceptions mostly for mobile data). Telcos not obeying this rule will be fined (or may even lose Radio Frequency License if not willing to obey).

Not quite. Providers are still free to offer contracts without any kind of roaming.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#77

Post by pietroalbini » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:02 PM UTC

_miroz wrote: post #38

I'm wondering why the regulation was necessary and why the free market forces didn't bring the prices or roaming down? What are the forces in telecom industry that kept the prices so high (assuming that the prices were higher then necessary)?

Because all the major operators (at least in Italy) really like cartels: if an operator increases the price of something, you can expect all the other ones to do exactly the same within a few months.

An example of this is when all the operators changed the billing cycle from one month to 28 days, adding another monthly fee in practice: even if only one operator started doing that (with outrage from the customers), now everyone does that, with the except of landlines where the regulator stepped in.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#78

Post by billpg » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:02 PM UTC

halloij wrote: post #11

billpg wrote: post #5

Cool, just as Brexit looks to be falling apart under its own incompetence.

What a fantastic comment. Well thought out, and spot on! Well done you. Please tell us your opinions on Trump as well!

Thank you very much. I worked very hard on it.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#79

Post by jlg23 » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:03 PM UTC

_miroz wrote: post #38

I'm wondering why the regulation was necessary and why the free market forces didn't bring the prices or roaming down? What are the forces in telecom industry that kept the prices so high (assuming that the prices were higher then necessary)?

There was no real competition because there was no real market. The high roaming fees were simply a trap for unsuspecting consumers who got a smartphone, went on holiday and only then learned about "roaming", "automatic updates" and their phones' "via wifi only"-settings; business users would just get a local SIM.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#80

Post by mschuetz » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:03 PM UTC

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…

Worked out perfectly fine for me. My provider is one of the cheapest available in Austria and they recently sent me a message to let me know that I now pay the same for phone calls and mobile internet in other EU countries.