Slashdot Mirror
EU Mobile Roaming Charges Scrapped (bbc.com)
From now on, European Union holidaymakers should return home without that sense of high anxiety about their mobile phone bill: extra fees for using it abroad should have gone. From a report: The new rules mean that citizens travelling within the EU will be able to call, text and browse the internet on mobile devices at the same price they pay at home. The European Commission said the end of roaming charges was one of the greatest successes of the EU. But a UK consumer group warned phone users could face "unexpected charges." Until now roaming, or connection, charges have been added to the cost of calls, texts and internet browsing when consumers from one EU country travelled to another and connected to a mobile network there.
We had an EU friendly phone plan. We drove to Andorra...great skiing, good food, nice hospitality. There was a thief in the Mountains, who waylaid our travelers....Andorra Telecom. They sent a message saying that we'd used 50 euro in data (for some google maps...an hour's drive maybe). We turned off data. Then, they shut off our phone for a 250 euro data charge, which had magically run up in that 45 minutes before the 50 euro shutoff message. Andorra Telecom put a black eye on an otherwise interesting place-they are a robber in the hills...so . F@!K Andorra Telecom.
You can always tell who is the American idiot kid posting; above is a perfect example. This is about the single market, which expands to the internet as well. There is no added cost for service as the legal regulations are exactly the same already. This simply ends the divisive practice of charging for cross-border usage in an otherwise economically unified territory. It cuts profits, and companies can't increase prices in competition without losing revenue.
The European Commission said the end of roaming charges was one of the greatest successes of the EU
If that is one of their "greatest successes" then the EU is a good approximation of worthless. Sure roaming charges are an issue but are a very minor problem in the grand scheme of things.
Pretty much like your opinion - very minor in the grand scheme of things. But since you've taken the time to help others understand that you're bored or incapable of posting something worth reading, why can't you talk about the good from this article where imaginary borders between 28 countries have just been dropped in a way that helps unite the people of Europe and reduce the overall individual's stress levels when dealing with technology and traveling? If anything, the rest of the world can follow suit and make this place more progressive with regards to technology...
Sure roaming charges are an issue but are a very minor problem in the grand scheme of things.
You say that in the comfort of not knowing what it's like being able to walk across the border for lunch, or live in a house where depending on which direction the wind blows you get a message saying welcome to the Netherlands or welcome to Germany, or working in a different country from where you live, or those friends around the corner from you living in a different country.
Roaming charges in a place where countries are so densely packed that you can walk from one side to the other without any great effort are a huge frigging problem.
One thing that is very minor is your understanding of the rest of the world.
You are wrong. Roaming charges are dropped already, it doesn't take decades. I don't see why extra taxes or destruction of alcohol would be illegal, being an EU member doesn't mean one can't have stronger laws in some areas. E.g. the VAT is IIRC regulated to be at least 15% but most countries have a tax of 19-25% (often depending on the type of goods - which is also according to local laws). ... Well, re-read the previous sentence.
Sweden have a state monopoly on alcohol and personal import of alcohol is limited to avoid people importing and selling alcohol - and this is legal according to EU rules. Finland _also_ have a state monopoly on alcohol and
My UK Vodafone contract already had EU roaming included in it when I went to Germany recently, so I knew that I could keep roaming turned on as I intended to use google maps and the like while I was away. However to get to Europe we took the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. on that ferry trip, my phone picked up the Telenor maritime cell signal from the ferry, which counts as "rest of world" at £6 per meg! I wasn't even using the phone. it had just been checking email etc while I was asleep. Woke to an £18 extra bill for that...
so be careful on the seas people...
Actually that is a great success. It means the government only interferes with business when business is hurting consumers.
Unlike say pai who is actively trying to turn internet in the USA into cable interactive television.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
The government (in this case, the EU) has no business dictating what pricing should be for a particular service
Just like the US government has no business regulating interstate commerce.
Seriously though, the EU is not dictating what the pricing should be, they're only banning the use of a customers location within the EU from being a part of the pricing model. I'm pretty sure service providers can still charge based on call distance if they choose to, they just can't tack on a fee for calls being cross-border. It's a legitimate step to take in bringing Europe closer together.
Roaming costs will get moved into a different user fee.
There are no real reasons for roaming fee nowadays except to fill the pockets of the providers.
At worst situation for the service provider, he needs to interconnect with another provider.
As most modern telephone back-end use voip (usually SIP), there aren't that many extra costs compared to a home call, and a cell tower is still a cell tower, no matter which country you're in.
At best for the service provider, it's the same parent company in both countries. The client isn't really roaming, he's just using 2 different local presence of the same parent company (e.g.: O2 is present in several EU-members countries. But it's still considered roaming if you're on O2 Germany, and calling from O2 Czech republic, etc).
So in other words, there's almost no justification for you to pay more than a few percents above what communications rates are at the local operator to which you're roaming while traveling in this country. (if it costs xxx eurocents for operator yyy to take a call for residents of a EU-country, it doesn't cost much more for the same operator to take the same call for somebody coming from abroad).
But until recently, operator had the habit to jack up prices by an insane factor when roaming (when travelling abroad, in a not so distant past, you'd be prepared to pay between 4x and 10x what the locals pay for their calls).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]