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

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#91

Post by odiroot » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:07 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…

Exactly. My both subscriptions -- Congstar in Germany and T-Mobile in Poland still charge me for everything abroad.

I didn't bother to compare the prices too long but I think they cut them down just a bit.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#92

Post by quickben » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:07 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 it's an overused phrase that doesn't mean what most people think it means. "Free market" is heavily used as a propaganda.

Back when I took few economy courses, we went over numerous real world examples on how big companies price fix. Sometimes you can have eight players and they'll still agree to fix prices.

This wasn't dry theory, this was golf meeting to raise prices by 50% , fishing trips where pieces of papers were exchanged and nobody fished etc.

From this, if the government is non corrupt, it's far better for the people that government step in and regulate than leave it to the market with a handful of players.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#93

Post by jahnu » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:07 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #84

endijs wrote: post #63

This idea was good. But in reality what happened in Latvia was very simple and expected move by telcos - all three of them raised prices for all subscriptions by about 3€-4€ monthly (which is ~30% increase). Yes, now you can feel better while traveling, however everyone now pays extra every single month. For some situation now is better, while others pay for it even if they do not need such freedom. Those who are in…

If roaming is free, can't you just use another countries cellphone provider? And if so, it's likely the cheapest country needed to raise rates should people from more expensive areas do so.

No. There are various limits. One of which is you have a limited amount of time you can roam for per year before you have to start paying. It's not too bad though. The real shit loophole is that they don't give you your full data allowance when roaming. It's needlessly complicated of course. Very rough idea: if you get 10gb for €10 a month you can roam for free for 2gb of that.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#94

Post by wim » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

danmaz74 wrote: post #13

matteuan wrote: post #3

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

> calling foreign numbers will cost more at home than when travelling abroad How so?

Unless your provider’s plan includes calling abroad at domestic rates, calling a foreign number from home will be more expensive than calling that same foreign number from another member state. It’s a rather absurd consequence of the fact that it was decided that any communication from the state your provider is in (calls, data usage, etc.) is not technically “roaming”, and therefore not part of the “Roam like at home” agreement.

While this agreement is definitely a step in the right direction, a few exceptions like this might actually increase phone bills for a number of people who were previously on special EU plans with their provider, some of which are now being phased out. A couple of parties are calling for the EU parliament to address these issues, but I don't think it will be changed any time soon.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#95

Post by ipedrazas » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #84

endijs wrote: post #63

This idea was good. But in reality what happened in Latvia was very simple and expected move by telcos - all three of them raised prices for all subscriptions by about 3€-4€ monthly (which is ~30% increase). Yes, now you can feel better while traveling, however everyone now pays extra every single month. For some situation now is better, while others pay for it even if they do not need such freedom. Those who are in…

If roaming is free, can't you just use another countries cellphone provider? And if so, it's likely the cheapest country needed to raise rates should people from more expensive areas do so.

No, the rule says that you can use abroad what you've been using "at home" on a regular basis.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#96

Post by DanBC » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:08 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)?

Bafflement pricing: Mobile phone plans can be monthly contracts or "pay as you go". They have pricing for texts, minutes, and data. They'll include some amount of free texting and free call minutes. Sometimes you'll get unlimited calls to people on the same carrier.

Mobile roaming is for most[1] people a rare event.

The average user has little idea about how much data they're actually using.

These combine to make it impossible for the average user to buy the best plan for them.

[1] Some people live near borders, and those people got hammered by mobile roaming charges because their phones connected to towers across the border. So they got charged for roaming even when they weren't.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#97

Post by martinald » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

matteuan wrote: post #57

JoeCamel wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, calling foreign numbers costs the same in both your country and abroad. And it's usually more expensive on mobile networks, but that doesn't have anything to do with roaming.

I misunderstood, I read things again and you are right.

This isn't correct - these regulations only apply when roaming. In your home network the operator can charge what it likes for intra-EU calls.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#98

Post by ptaipale » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:08 PM UTC

panzer_wyrm wrote: post #62

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?

Uk three. Uk is the only sane (at least on this topic) country left in the EU in which you could buy a sim card without photo id.

You can get prepaids without any ID card in Finland, at least. Sweden as well, the last time I bought.

Regular subscriptions not, that's relevant for invoicing (as you can buy things through these subscriptions, it is pretty much like getting a credit card, hence asking for photo ID is entirely reasonable.)

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#99

Post by jahnu » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:09 PM UTC

mschuetz wrote: post #80

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.

Try and use your full data allowance abroad and get back to me.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#100

Post by ipedrazas » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:09 PM UTC

matteuan wrote: post #85

endijs wrote: post #63

This idea was good. But in reality what happened in Latvia was very simple and expected move by telcos - all three of them raised prices for all subscriptions by about 3€-4€ monthly (which is ~30% increase). Yes, now you can feel better while traveling, however everyone now pays extra every single month. For some situation now is better, while others pay for it even if they do not need such freedom. Those who are in…

The european antitrust should punish this behaviour!

don't think they can. Telcos are not going to say "we raise the price because roaming" so, even if we all know, they will walk away.

I'm sure their lawyers made sure they could do it... sadly.