A lot of people complaining here. I am based in Luxembourg currently, and went to London last week. The peace of mind of landing in a foreign city and being able to use your phone as if at home truly is incredible. I could really feel the barriers to traveling fading. (Ironic that it was London, I know). BTW, my Luxembourghish telco actually aligned with the EU directive ahead of time (June 1st).
Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
221–230 of 359 posts
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#222What is the correct European SIM to buy for data/voice/etc. (prepaid)? Presumably best to get one from a country you don't actually visit much, so you're always roaming, and thus don't pay the home to foreign number charges?
Uk three. Uk is the only sane (at least on this topic) country left in the EU in which you could buy a sim card without photo id.
You specifically have to show your photo ID if you want the porn and torrent ban, hrm, I mean adult filter lifted from your Three account.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#223I 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
Because it has taken them a ridiculously long time. Note that these regulations have been phased in for the last 10 years after the Commission first gave the industry about two years warning that they were unhappy about the situation. In those 10 years, the limits have steadily been dropped, yet most providers have avoid to the last day to drop their rates ahead of the regulation. These regulations have been reviewed…
But they were effective from the start. EU roaming was already cheap in the last years whereas going to the US with a European data plan reminds you what roaming can really cost (some exceptions apply).
It's great that it's free now but the caps were already quite effective before.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#224So the cost incurred will be passed on to everyone in higher fees. eg people who never "roam" are going to be subsidising those people that do. A negative move spun as a positive... clever EU, clever.
Ignoring the argument on whether having everyone subsidising the few for some things is good or bad, does it even apply here? Does "roaming" really cost anywhere near what they charge for it? Or does it only cost that because they could all charge each other that in hopes to make out with a little on top?
Roaming costs what it costs to transport the (voice) data over the internet, because all of the telcos naturally now use that as their backbone and have been for 10+ years.
So it costs absolutely nothing.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#225I'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)?
People on average were willing to pay a lot for roaming, because it was charged from:
- business travelers (someone else's money)
- high income people (will still roaming even if it's expensive)
And it had a loophole for frugal people (prepaid local SIM) so they could still tolerate the situation.
Finally, operators didn't decide the roaming costs for their customers - they could only decide what they will charge the other country's operator. So there was no direct way to lower their own roaming costs short of formin a "reverse cartel" of lowering prices.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
To add to that: I can buy wholesale bandwidth within Europe with some ease for But even the most price-gouging "captive audience" transit providers (e.g. in data centres without multiple choices of carriers) rarely charge more than ~$10/Mbps (depending on utilisation down to ~$40 per TB transferred or about 0.04 cents per GB...)
Then have the roaming charge regulated to 7€ per terabyte, instead of 7€ per gigabyte as now.
That's below the price you pay for data transfer from a server at AWS.. I agree that €7/GB is probably too high, but will still be higher than for internet via cable.
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#227Prepaid wireless plans in America are marketed as being cheaper than long term contracts.
San Francisco tacks on a 23 percent fee to prepaid wireless plans.
http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/03/california-boe-relea...
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#228Prepaid wireless plans in America are marketed as being cheaper than long term contracts. San Francisco tacks on a 23 percent fee to prepaid wireless plans. http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/03/california-boe-relea...
You should move to a more densely populated country ;)
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. It's difficult to see if that was causation though, as Three had already had "Feel at home" in 2013 when discussions started in the EU about this legislation.
The first steps towards this happened in 2005, with the first regulations passed in 2007. 2013 is just the last tightening after the providers once again dragged their feet enough to finally get the Commission to accept they wouldn't do it voluntarily.
Ah, my bad! I was under the wrong impression then. Thanks for informing. :)
Re: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
In that case you will call cheap only within the countries you listed. No roaming fees doesn't mean that calling between different countries will be cheaper.