I am wondering how much extra cost the operators for a roaming call, in both case A where both phones are on same operator and in second case where second person is on a second operator.
Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
181–190 of 359 posts
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#182Result around here: roaming disappeared from all mobile plans except for the most expensive ones, which got nudged a few euros up. The frequent travellers (presumably wealthier) get subsidized by the infrequent travellers (presumably less wealthier).
Infrequent travelers will also profit. If you're from Northern Europe going to Spain for vacation you now don't have to change money, don't have any border checks and can use your phone like at home. Using Facebook, Instagram & Co on holiday is important to many and will make people feel more "at home" in another EU country.
This was never supposed to save money, it was to bring the EU closer together and make borders disappear further.
Business travelers had fees paid by their employer anyway, not that much changed for them.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#183So 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.
You mean that like any government policy it looks at what will be best for the majority of people rather than the minority? Shocking.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#184This 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…
Latvia and Lithuania have literally the cheapest telco services in Europe. It's no surprise that we have to pay a bit more now. Yes, we lose this time, but for the rest of the Europe it's a huge win.
> Latvia and Lithuania have literally the cheapest telco services in Europe.
Relative to the cost of living?
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#185This 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…
I think it's a small price to pay to have the freedom as a country to talk to anyone in Europe cheaply. The effects won't be felt right away, but just as cheaper flights across Europe have made Europeans much more interconnected, so will cheap roaming fees (even though for the sub-30 generation, WhatsApp calls and such are already the norm).
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#186This 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…
Not trying to play HN policeman but:
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#187I 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
It was needed because in most countries (at least in the Netherlands) there were no telco's offering free or even reasonably prices roaming. As long as no one did it there was no incentive for any of them to lower or abolish roaming prices.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
I'm not completely sure that's true – it's possible that an operator might simply choose not to offer roaming at all with their basic plans, requiring an add-on to allow roaming.
But the op said that telcos found a way around this, implicating that plans were changed to exclude roaming. But I haven't heard from anyone in UK or Germany who had roaming taken away.
So it remains possible that a company will try it at some point but it will likely be very rare.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Won't be a problem. They can have fair use policies for unlimited data but otherwise it'll be the same as using it at home.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
To add to that: I can buy wholesale bandwidth within Europe with some ease for But even the most price-gouging "captive audience" transit providers (e.g. in data centres without multiple choices of carriers) rarely charge more than ~$10/Mbps (depending on utilisation down to ~$40 per TB transferred or about 0.04 cents per GB...)
Then have the roaming charge regulated to 7€ per terabyte, instead of 7€ per gigabyte as now.