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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

#191

Post by dx034 »

Erwin wrote: post #120
tskaiser wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telmore in Denmark (my current operator) first gave my subscription a price hike to "compensate" for the new roaming rules and then advertised that I could change to a "Denmark only" subscription for the old price. It seems this option is now gone, however instead I now have separate data limits between Denmark and EU, with the latter being substantially less (only 5 GB, "calculated based on your subscription"). When…

Telmore's web page was confusing up until today, but my "Telmore Play" with 25 GB included has 8 GB of it usable in EU. Apparently there's a complex "fair usage" formula that is allegedly EU mandated: > EU Data = (abonnementspris x 2) / EU-defineret GB pris

Which looks fair. It's obvious that they need some kind of fair use policy to avoid that people just buy the SIM in the cheapest country. 8GB per month abroad on a 25GB plan will suffice for 99.x% of people and is a huge step compared to the situation previously.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#192

Post by watson »

mtgx wrote: post #185
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…

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).

Roaming is for when you travel (i.e. bring your mobile phone to another country), not when you call someone in another country

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#193

Post by dx034 »

_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)?

Many commentators here say it's not a free market but I would disagree. It's just that very few people choose their plan based on roaming. There were cheap roaming plans for a while in most countries but many tend to choose a plan that fits best for the time they're at home, not for the few weeks a year they're abroad.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#194

Post by arthens »

dao- wrote: post #34
mrweasel wrote: post #14

Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out. They simply remove EU roaming from their standard subscriptions and it now becomes an add-on. So if you want to use your phone in a different country during the holidays, you'll need an EU roaming subscription. The politicians once again failed to be sufficient precise in formulating a law that would produce the decided result. They should have added a clause that state…

> Yeah, the telcos have already found a way out What are "the telcos"? I just got an SMS from Vodafone announcing that from now on, I won't pay roaming fees in EU countries.

Same from TIM in Italy.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#195

Post by wila »

martinald wrote: post #74
matthewmacleod wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that the price of foreign calls will be affected – everything is simply charged at the home plan rate. Calling e.g. a French number will cost the same regardless of whether I am in France or the UK.

Incorrect. The regulation only applies when roaming. To take three UK for example: Calling Spain from the UK: 46p/min Calling Spain from France while roaming: inclusive in minutes allowance, otherwise 3p/min. I also checked Vodafone.de and it's the same thing - nearly €1/min if you're in Germany, or inclusive if you're roaming. It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

That is correct. Calling from your own EU country to any other country within the EU is still costing extra.

Technically it isn't roaming and the telcos happily charge you premium as it does not fall under that regulation. Many people will be confused by this bit.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#196

Post by ko27 »

ptaipale wrote: post #139
ko27 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know. Some operators will benefit slightly, some will not. And every tourist is satisfied. This is what I would call a good policy. Also there are protection plans in the policy for the extremely unlikely scenario that a company is not making a net profit.

It's not "slightly". There's a considerable imbalance.

Source?

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#197

Post by dx034 »

simion314 wrote: post #181

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.

I'd guess that there's no extra cost for an operator like Vodafone if they have a roaming client using data. Mobile data will not go back to the home country and peering costs are similar throughout Europe. Phone calls have to be routed to the home country but that's not a significant cost item.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#198

Post by mstade »

mtgx wrote: post #185
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…

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).

But the regulation only applies to roaming so it doesn't really affect calls made from your home country to another EU country, which can still be much more than a typical local call.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#199

Post by watson »

_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)?

Look at the most free market of them all with the least regulation: United States. Here using a mobile phone is WAAAY more expensive than in Europe. My US friends always thinks I'm lying when I tell them how little we pay for data in EU.

Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

#200

Post by walshemj »

lmm wrote: post #177
walshemj wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should customers who don't go into the red subsides those that do then.

No, the point is the profit margin on all customers should be approximately the same; if any group is cross-subsidizing any other group then something's probably screwy.

Lol the banks will find away to keep charging for overdrafts and screw both types of customer - just like they did over the reduction in merchant charges I lost £20 a month but the merchants just pocketed the reduced charges as a bonus and did not pass it on to customers.
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