Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 359 posts

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#201

Post by dx034 »

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

Note that their page changed today. Germany wasn't included previously, along with some other EU countries. That meant that you got free roaming in the US and Australia, but not in some of the biggest EU countries.

The new policy is a big positive even for 3 clients.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#202

Post by geoka9 »

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #176

Here in Switzerland we have some of the highest mobile prices ($30+) [1], yet our mobile providers will not remove the fee like the rest or Europe. Our politician try to enforce every single new EU-law, but when there's once something that would benefit the people, they come up with many excuses why this couldn't be applied and how Switzerland isn't part of the EU and doesn't have to follow through... [1] https://www…

Amazing, $30 is considered high for a mobile plan. In Canada it's the price of the lowest end plan from the lowest end provider. A plan from a big name provider will be at least $60 with capped data.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#203

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

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…

That kind of thing used to happen in Israel too. Every time the government introduced a new regulation aiming to reduce mobile costs, the three companies would respond by simultaneously raising prices. And then the government used the nuclear option--They licensed two new mobile operators. And the prices plummeted.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#204

Post by dx034 »

ptaipale wrote: post #27
glebm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

Where do you have the €7/GB from? It's the cap, not the price usually paid. I remember a study by the EC where they found out that most operators don't pay significant amount of roaming costs. It either evens out or the amounts are too small.

Most countries will have 3-4 operators so that there is competition and I doubt that €7/GB is the cheapest an Italian operator can offer to a wholesale client.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#205

Post by mstade »

This is great, now I can ditch my UK Three SIM that I've had for years simply because they implemented a "feel at home" kind of policy long ago, where roaming within the EU is free. There was always a data limit, and you can't tether your phone to your laptop which was annoying, but it's been great for me who's been travelling in the EU frequently. Now I can drop that extra £30/month cost and don't have to carry extra SIMs. I love it.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#206

Post by rahimnathwani »

_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)?

Do you consider the cost of an unauthorised overdraft when opening a bank account? Do you consider the late payment fee when taking out a loan? Do you consider the cost of foreign transactions when choosing a credit card? Do you consider the cost of ink cartridges when buying a printer?

Maybe you do, but most people don't. People aren't price sensitive to every element equally. I recall the first time I used roaming. I was in Heidelberg, Germany, using a UK-issued SIM. The cost per minute for me to make a call to a local number was over 1 USD per minute, billed in minute increments (i.e. a 10 second call would be billed as a minute).

If I had known that before I left, would that have been enough for me to research other carriers' roaming costs and switch? Probably not.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#207

Post by ClashTheBunny »

apexalpha wrote: post #168
matteuan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a limit of 4 months of roaming usage per year.

I think it's 60 days a year. So a 'normal' person going on vacation, traveling for work, visiting a city just across the border will have fee-less roaming. But you can't go to Romania, buy a SIM and use it here indefinitely.

You have to go to Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, and Poland get one each? Or just get six cards from different services?

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#208

Post by StavrosK »

andmarios wrote: post #163
mamon wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Poland it actually is a race to the bottom: there are 4 different mobile operators and every time one of them announce a new offer it usually is cheaper than anything already on the market. And within few weeks other 3 usually follow with similar price cuts. EU's roaming regulation is the latest example: 3 operators announced tariffs that pretended to make roaming free, but have multiple strings attached. But the…

You guys are lucky. I wish it was the same with the greek market. Though the cynic in me whispers that wait a few years and you'll experience the same behavior once the market is settled.

I don't know man, I have the Cosmote 65 and was paying 12 euros a month until recently (now I pay 20) for 1500 mins/SMS and 3 GB/mo. If you tell them you're switching away every time your contract lapses, they give you huge discounts.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#209

Post by Angostura »

mstade wrote: post #205

This is great, now I can ditch my UK Three SIM that I've had for years simply because they implemented a "feel at home" kind of policy long ago, where roaming within the EU is free. There was always a data limit, and you can't tether your phone to your laptop which was annoying, but it's been great for me who's been travelling in the EU frequently. Now I can drop that extra £30/month cost and don't have to carry extr…

As far as I know, the data limit is whatever your tariff normally gives you - no more, no less. I wouldn't be surprised if the other carriers have a no-tethering-while-roaming rule too.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#210

Post by imron »

narag wrote: post #145
imron wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because it appears the Latvians are now subsidising your roaming charges.

I guess you're not serious, are you?

Not that serious.

But the grandparent post was someone from Latvia saying 'this is terrible our prices have gone up' which was followed by someone from France saying 'no this is great our prices have gone down'.

Someone's paying for it, and I doubt it's the Telcos who are losing out.

Post reply on HN