Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

Post by icebraining » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:38 PM UTC

netcan wrote: post #123

_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 are free markets and then there are free markets. There are commodity markets with many producers, many consumers and product uniformity. These can be modeled very effectively using economic theories. Barley, pork bellies, silver. There are more “normal” markets with many (or at least enough) producers & consumers and nonuniform products with sufficient substitution options. Supermarkets, building supplies, spo…

Post by InTempWeTrust » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:39 PM UTC

Post by ptaipale » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:40 PM UTC

samastur wrote: post #90

ptaipale wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a recent change? I hadn't heard of such. So, e.g. Telia doesn't have to pay any roaming charge to WIND Hellas if a Telia customer from Sweden goes to Greece and connects that network? Previously I heard a cap of 7 € per gigabyte for data fees was regulated.

Charge still is regulated to 7.7EUR per GB, but that is not its cost. Cost is indeed negligible as data is mostly transferred on exactly the same networks as the rest of Internet traffic in EU and nobody sane argues that you should pay 7 EUR for each GB you transfer. If I divide my monthly internet bill with the amount of data I transfer during it, then price of GB of data transfer is indeed close to nothing.

Post by InTempWeTrust » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:42 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #96

_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…

Post by ptaipale » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 12:44 PM UTC

ko27 wrote: post #70

halloij wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If tourist movement is spread out across Europe equally It's not.

I know. Some operators will benefit slightly, some will not. And every tourist is satisfied. This is what I would call a good policy. Also there are protection plans in the policy for the extremely unlikely scenario that a company is not making a net profit.