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European roaming charges will end in 2014

wired.co.uk

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Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#31

Post by gutnor »

yread wrote: post #28

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

I don't know for the data, but I pay 8 times less (! 25p/min vs 3p/min) to call a mobile in foreign country than another mobile locally in the UK and only 2 times cheaper when making call in a foreign country.

I never really understood, that's just a pay as you go sim from a big player, yet it is cheaper to call a Spanish mobile in Spain with my UK mobile than the Pay as you Go rate from the same operator in Spain.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#32

Post by icebraining »

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.

If they can raise them (without lowering the number of calls), why haven't they done so by now?

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#33

Post by mseebach »

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…

Yeah, I'd be interested in how this would be implemented as well. I'm guessing it's not as simple as "ending roaming charges" as that would be quite easy to game - setup a single-mast cell phone provider in the middle of a Finnish forest, and demand that all other providers carry your clients traffic for free. Clearly, the network in which another networks' clients are roaming must be compensated somehow, it's just that the price will be capped at some level.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#34

Post by bad_user »

morganwilde wrote: post #4
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 far as I'm concerned, this is bigger than the freedom of physical movement within the EU country borders. Now our data will move with us!

The two are tightly related, although physical movement is more important because in absence of it you waist a lot of time to get a Visa and there's always the possibility that you might not get it, whereas with roaming charges it's only a matter of convenience and price.

Btw, whenever I travel within EU one of the first things I do after landing would be to get a PrePay card. In European countries PrePay offers are really good and sometimes better than PostPay contracts.

If anything, I fear that this will favour an oligopoly of the big ones, like Vodafone and Orange, with no real benefit to me, a user accustomed with searching for good local PrePay offers.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#35

Post by mseebach »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #30
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, opera…

That is what they seem to be promising (and we all know that then politicians promise something, that's how it's going to be). It's not clear how it will be implemented, and it's not clear why a dutch provider should honor a commitment for unlimited data that a UK provider has made to you.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#36

Post by bad_user »

This is great, but I fear that the big winners will be the big telcos that have a presence in multiple countries, like Vodafone or Orange. In my country these two companies formed an oligopoly with similar services, similar prices, similar everything, until Cosmote came along.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#37

Post by mseebach »

mmahemoff wrote: post #11
netrus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about that, it has not happened after the last few price-limitations that were issued in recent years. If mobile internet is 50-100x more expensive beyond national borders I will simply not use it, it's a lose-lose deal (that is hard for the market to escape from, due to the large fragmentation).

The telcos make a small fortune every time a business traveller runs up thousands of Euros/Pounds/etc (often at the expense of their employer's shareholders). It's not surprising if the telcos increase everyone's fees a bit if this money is no longer coming in. And I'm fine with that. Overall, it means previously underutilised capacity will finally be used. 99% of people were unable to use all mobile broadband when a…

I read somewhere in some other coverage of this reform that the measures were expected to drain about 2% from telcos' revenues. Even if they raise their prices by 5% (which isn't given), that's (a) still a decent deal if you travel ever (but unfair that non-travellers would end up subsidising travellers) (b) quickly eaten up by the continuously falling prices of mobile plans.

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#38

Post by belorn »

This will most likely not happen.

European Parliament member Christian Engström has written on the subject that this decision is just one in a row of promised proposals to lower/get rid of roaming charges. He points out that each time an actual proposal has been created, it has immediately been dropped by the same group. The current proposal is intended to be created just at the time the current European Commission's term will be up and next commission can "decide" on the matter.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article16919673.ab

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#39

Post by omegant »

ValentineC wrote: post #27
morganwilde wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Starbucks at Berkeley St. in London doesn´t have free wifi, you have to buy credit. I don´t know the rest of the starbucks in London are the same..

Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014

#40

Post by hencq »

mseebach wrote: post #35
kintamanimatt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, opera…

That is what they seem to be promising (and we all know that then politicians promise something, that's how it's going to be). It's not clear how it will be implemented, and it's not clear why a dutch provider should honor a commitment for unlimited data that a UK provider has made to you.

Note that many providers are already active in multiple countries. For example Vodafone has business entities in the UK and the Netherlands, so those agreements should be relatively straightforward to set up.
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