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Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

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Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#251

Post by Brakenshire »

Radim wrote: post #243

Ah! Central regulations brought us inefficient telco monopolies and cartels. Surely some more central regulations will remedy the situation! "To each according to his needs." What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the reason why there is so much telco competition in Europe, and the prices are so low, is that the EU set common standards for mobile phone protocols from the start. Each company cannot keep its customers from going to the competition, I have been able to buy one phone which works with every company everywhere in the continent for decades. Everyone I know buys a phone (often second hand) then moves from one company to another to get the best deal. The problem with the US is not regulation, it is bad regulation.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#252

Post by Certhas »

czr80 wrote: post #175
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…

This doesn't really make sense - what was stopping them from raising prices before, if people are really willing to pay 3-4 EUR more?

It's good timing because it will have the customers "blaming Europe" for the cost increase rather than the Telcos.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#253

Post by baq »

imron wrote: post #210
narag wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh, telcos absolutely lose, because there were a few companies present in most EU countries and somehow most of them charged for roaming anyway only because they could - it cost them nothing extra.

Parcels are next, so I hear.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#254

Post by ZeroGravitas »

m_t wrote: post #217
rolodato wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it's likely it'll stay that way after Brexit?

Regarding Three, one of the telco available in the UK, as the parent said they were already aligned with this proposition with their "Feel at home" option. Since it covers the EU and many other non EU countries (USA included for instance) I think it'll stay this way.

The 3 Feel at Home offer was (and is, for non-EU destinations) an extra, paid add-on to the basic "essentials" service. You also get tethering on that higher price plan, so maybe the average HN user wouldn't consider the lower tier and just counts it as 'free' from their perspective.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#255

Post by will_hughes »

Thimothy wrote: post #240
mamon wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roaming is relatively niche, but very expensive product, compared to other telecommunication services, so in my opinion it was fair to charge additional fee for that. Now that EU regulation is in place mobile operators are no longer allowed to charge the additional cost to people actually using roaming, they have to spread it across all their customers. So, net effect will be: poor people who do not use roaming (e.g.…

Why is expensive? I get that in the times of analog cable, connection centers between different countries networks were cumbersome, and a service that needed to be payed exclusively by those that used it, but these days of interconnected everything? I have still to see a reason in this thread that justifies the higher prices. If connections between different companies in a country work without significant cost, why i…

Consider the case of a small national telco that happens to have a large number of incoming tourists.

There's an additional burden on their network, and they should be able to recoup some of that cost.

But almost every carrier I've seen would charge extortionate rates - hundreds or thousands of times the price they would charge their local customers for.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#256

Post by kaybe »

dx034 wrote: post #188
matthewmacleod wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Would anyone get a plan without roaming? Looking at the size of European countries that would be unthinkable for anyone I know. Unless it's.. free or something. Maybe then.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#257

Post by akerro »

rainingtomorrow wrote: post #140
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…

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.

So richer western countries win, you will pay more and it's ok?

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#258

Post by samastur »

ptaipale wrote: post #135
samastur wrote: post #90

Earlier 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.

It is a cost to my operator, and it is a cost the the EU has explicitly approved.

It would be if it was one way only. In practice users from all telcos roam on other networks, negating large bits of this exchange. Real price per user is much lower.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#259

Post by ionised »

simonh wrote: post #157
gmac wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's a confusopoly[1] and roaming charges (like data overage charges) weren't part of the headline offer, which was generally UNLIMITED calls and texts and a FREE phone when you pay £X per month . Same as 'free' banking in the UK, which is in reality heavily cross-subsidised by the poorest customers paying overdraft penalties. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusopoly

Britain has some of the most forgiving overdraft penalties in Europe. My mother spends time in France and has a French bank account, going overdrawn over there is a seriously big deal even if you have an otherwise stellar record and the charges are punitive even if you have a facility.

Maybe, but being the best of a bad bunch doesn't make you good.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#260

Post by grasshopper12a »

akerro wrote: post #257
rainingtomorrow wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So richer western countries win, you will pay more and it's ok?

Yeah, Lithuania and Latvia receive a lot of cash from the EU to upgrade their infrastructure. It's not all black or white, but this doesn't seem like a big issue when you see the support the country received.
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