This is good news for me because my job entails traveling a lot mostly within eu.
European roaming charges will end in 2014
91–100 of 105 posts
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Widespread in some major cities. Last month I visited some family in a small town in Germany, and the only WiFi available was at the hotel, and it was not free.
Yeah, I'm learning that Germany is an exception. It's not just major cities in the rest of Europe, though. In Sweden you can find free wifi even in small towns, because every 7-11 and every McDonald's in the whole country provides it, not to mention most coffee shops and libraries.
Germany is an exception because there is an actual law that says you're liable if someone else uses your wifi for shady purposes. That's why our routers are password protected out of the box and almost no one will offer open, let alone free wifi. I heard from a hotel owner that this is not just a theoretical danger; he'd paid a high fine once and decided not to offer free wifi any longer.
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#93There'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.
I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in Poland we used to have 3 mobile operators, each one with their own cell towers, right now we have 4, but two of them have been bought by international comapnies (tmobile and orange).
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and what happens if a provider in some small country sets up a limited network for very cheap with the intention of the majority of it's users being in different countries and thus other companies footing the bill.
If I understand this correctly, it is supposed to be free to the customer, not the provider. So it is not about whether provider A pays provider B if A's users roam in B's network, but whether A's users pay more to A while roaming.
I hope not - because then it means that roaming isn't made free, but rather that giving you a good deal that only works on your home network - even if you want it and never travel - becomes illegal.
This means that any business development that you can't agree with all of Europe on isn't going to happen. One country with poor 3G/4G infrastructure can block large, cheap data packages all over the EU.
No, I hope the regulation is that providers have to sell access wholesale to foreign competitor at the same rate they sell it to themselves (or national MNVOs or something) - meaning roaming won't be free, it just won't be more expensive than getting a local SIM.
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sweden is exceptionally socialist even by European standards. I can well believe free wifi would be common there, and in the rest of scandinavia, but not in "mainland" Europe.
I suppose I don't see how multinational corporations like McDonald's or 7-11 providing wifi has a socialist angle to it. Isn't that more just the free market operating? They offer wifi because they think it brings in business, and the Scandinavian countries have fairly free markets that don't stand in their way when they want to do so. The German-style regulations discouraging establishments from offering wifi throug…
Successful multinational corporations adapt their model to fit local cultures. The socialist culture in Scandanavia means people expect and reward businesses that offer free wifi; McDonald's/7-11 do it to remain competitive. I doubt it's the regulatory environment that makes the difference between Germany and Sweden - Sweden is also quite strongly regulated. And in other European countries where there is low regulation but an absence of socialist tradition (e.g. Italy) you don't see a whole lot of free wifi (or didn't when I was last there).
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#96This 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…
Too bad this occurs when the Eurozone is taking the plunge :) There may not be an unique currency still left in Europe 10 years down the road.
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#97Sounds great as described here, but I do have some doubts as to this being only good and awesome:
- If this was done with current prices, then I imagine people would rush to buy plans in the cheapest countries. Which sounds like big loss to telcoms. So, will they raise prices? If yes, this means problems for people in those cheap countries, who usually earn less too. Or will telcoms maybe lock-in prepaids to your personal ID, to enforce pricing-per-country? But then, anonymity is lost. So maybe, maybe they might introduce both as options, so you either pay more ("euroglobal price") for anonymity, or less and provide your ID? Any other ideas, anyone?
- "will mean greater competition, leading to alliances and eventual mergers" - I'm not economist, but isn't "greater competition" like exactly opposite to "alliances and mergers"?
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#98Nice, then maybe I can get rid of some of the ~20 SIM cards I'm carrying around, and not having to research the mobile market for each new country I happen to pass by..
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I'm learning that Germany is an exception. It's not just major cities in the rest of Europe, though. In Sweden you can find free wifi even in small towns, because every 7-11 and every McDonald's in the whole country provides it, not to mention most coffee shops and libraries.
Germany is an exception because there is an actual law that says you're liable if someone else uses your wifi for shady purposes. That's why our routers are password protected out of the box and almost no one will offer open, let alone free wifi. I heard from a hotel owner that this is not just a theoretical danger; he'd paid a high fine once and decided not to offer free wifi any longer.
Hmm heavy adoption of project loon in Germany expected.
Re: European roaming charges will end in 2014
#100This proves again that Neelie gets it.