European roaming charges will end in 2014 • Hacker News Board

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#21

Post by netrus » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:10 PM UTC

oleganza wrote: post #17

To make it clear: we all were paying roaming charges not because "evil companies" arranged in a cartel, but because some politicians (who control telecom licenses) were deciding prices and rules. Now they decided to drop some requirements and we all fell warm and happy about it. Does anyone wonder, wouldn't it be better if Brussels didn't have such power in the first place?

So an American in Singapore or South Africa does not have high roaming costs? I'm not sure that's true. They have established maximum prices, not minimum.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#22

Post by raphman » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:11 PM UTC

Luc wrote: post #15

There's a hundred operators in Europe, whereas there's three or four in the US and China. This fits in Neelie Kroes' plan to drive consolidation among operators.

Have such plans been announced/alleged?

As far as I know, there are only a handful, multinational operators with own cell tower infrastructure. The rest are more or less just resellers.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#23

Post by ovi256 » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:13 PM UTC

marcosscriven wrote: post #19

quattrofan wrote: post #8

How can this happen? the Daily Mail tells me nothing good comes from membership of the EU!!

No doubt the 'Mail will be able to spin it in some convoluted manner to look like another example of 'immigrants' stealing our jobs/money. No idea how, but they will.

Well, it's pretty simple. Consolidation of telcos will lead to less C-level executive jobs, less Network Operation Center jobs, less network architecture and planning jobs, so there you have it, this measure can only destroy jobs.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#24

Post by ValentineC » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:15 PM UTC

marban wrote: post #2

The article misses the fact that telcos are about to raise prices locally in return. Personally, I welcome this step since plans are cheap as hell in most countries anyway compared to, say, the US.

That's true. I believe providers exchange significant amounts of money from multilateral roaming agreements, and all that potential profit has to come from somewhere else.

What I'd like to see are providers charging a low fee for travellers to use their networks. Local users will subsidise travellers less in this case.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#25

Post by lettergram » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:15 PM UTC

I get the feeling that this will raise the prices significantly and likely keep fragmentation (it's harder to compete when all companies have the same possible pool).

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#26

Post by amirmc » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:16 PM UTC

casca wrote: post #6

This is still at the very high-level discussion stage. The key phrase: "“They agreed that this time next year we will have got rid of these charges,” a Brussels source said" Also, it's not clear how this would be implemented. For example, Vodafone in the UK lets you pay £3 a day and use your calls, texts and data from Europe. Would that be acceptable? What happens to the smaller MVNOs who have been responsible for dr…

> "If I was a pan-European mobile operator, I'd have been lobbying for this."

Do you mean lobbying against this? If I were a pan-european operator, then I'm making 'free' money from my customers that travel across Europe with negligible increase in costs. Scrapping roaming charges means that advantage goes away. Indeed, the article you link to has the following:

"The plans set up a clash between Brussels and telecoms bosses such as Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, who in February called for a 'moratorium on regulation' in telecoms. He said industry had been a target for too long and it threatened employment. Neelie Kroes, the Commisisoner behind the reforms, told Mr Colao she would 'call your bluff'"

Other than that, your questions are interesting. I'm on an MVNO (GiffGaff), which uses the O2 network. It'd be great if deals that the parent networks make are simply passed onto the MVNOs but we'll have to see.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#27

Post by ValentineC » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:18 PM UTC

morganwilde wrote: post #18

_delirium wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I'd go that far! It's an added convenience, but my data already moves with me through the EU, since non-phone internet access (coffee shops, libraries, McDonald's, 7-11, hotels, etc.) is pretty widespread.

Yes, OK, if you travel to a country with Starbucks, you can walk 10 minutes (if you're in central London or other bigger cities) or 30-60 minutes to the nearest one. But we live in the smartphone age, I want to be able to use all my apps everywhere I go, the way I'm used to back home. What's the point of all those hyper local apps if you need an immobile wi-fi connection to access them.

Certain Starbucks branches in some countries don't have free wifi. (I know for a fact that the one 100m away from me right now doesn't.)

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#28

Post by yread » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:24 PM UTC

The EU already severely regulate the market

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission_roaming_reg...

In fact it was sometimes cheaper to call on roaming then to call for the price-per-minute after you use up all your plan. Not to mention the data

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#29

Post by ed_blackburn » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:27 PM UTC

netrus wrote: post #3

This has huge psychological implications, similar to not carrying a passport while crossing borders and paying with the same coins everywhere: All these measures help to get the feeling that Europe is indeed one place, one community. Weekend trips to other countries are not a privilege of the 1 percent over here, more like the top 30-50%. I love to see what is happening right now, and I'm confident it will survive an…

As you allude; unless you live in the UK where the media shove it down our throats that we're special and don't need that level of co-operation, integration and instead should leave the EU (and presumably be a de-facto additional US state).

For those of us in the UK that do visit Europe or wish to speak to people in Europe with Google Hangout, Skype etc. this is excellent news, as it presumably is for all Europeans.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#30

Post by kintamanimatt » Mon, Jun 17, 2013, 2:30 PM UTC

casca wrote: post #6

This is still at the very high-level discussion stage. The key phrase: "“They agreed that this time next year we will have got rid of these charges,” a Brussels source said" Also, it's not clear how this would be implemented. For example, Vodafone in the UK lets you pay £3 a day and use your calls, texts and data from Europe. Would that be acceptable? What happens to the smaller MVNOs who have been responsible for dr…

I'm under the impression that I would be able to use my plan from one country in another without regard for whether I'm actually roaming or not, for no extra cost. This would include data, and would be excellent for me (at the moment at least) considering I have a cheap unlimited data plan.

I've seen it stated elsewhere that one of the ambitions of this plan is increased competition across borders, for example, operators from, say, the UK could compete with operators in the Netherlands.