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Because it's a confusopoly[1] and roaming charges (like data overage charges) weren't part of the headline offer, which was generally UNLIMITED calls and texts
by gmac 9y ago
Because it's a confusopoly[1] and roaming charges (like data overage charges) weren't part of the headline offer, which was generally UNLIMITED calls and texts and a FREE phone when you pay £X per month.
Same as 'free' banking in the UK, which is in reality heavily cross-subsidised by the poorest customers paying overdraft penalties.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusopoly
- stuaxo 9y agoWhat a great term. Mobile companies are the obvious ones to do this. Energy companies use this to great effect - there is never a like-for-like to compare.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- walshemj 9y agoShould customers who don't go into the red subsides those that do then.
- gmac 9y agoFalse dichotomy? Although if I had to choose (and speaking as someone who has never paid an overdraft fee), then yes, because it would be way less regressive than the current arrangement.
- lmm 9y agoNo, 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.
- walshemj 9y agoLol 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.
- simonh 9y agoBritain has some of the most forgiving overdraft penalties in Europe. My mother spends time in France and has a French bank account, going overdrawn over there is a seriously big deal even if you have an otherwise stellar record and the charges are punitive even if you have a facility.
- ionised 9y agoMaybe, but being the best of a bad bunch doesn't make you good.
- mamon 9y agoRoaming is relatively niche, but very expensive product, compared to other telecommunication services, so in my opinion it was fair to charge additional fee for that. Now that EU regulation is in place mobile operators are no longer allowed to charge the additional cost to people actually using roaming, they have to spread it across all their customers. So, net effect will be: poor people who do not use roaming (e.g. because they cannot afford vacations abroad) will pay for the convenience of middle and higher class people who travel a lot.
- seszett 9y agoThe EU has also regulated down the price that mobile operators are allowed to charge each other for roaming though, during the last years. So roaming is actually not expensive anymore for them, and this latest regulation is the logical outcome, forcing the operators to pass their savings on to their customers.
- tim333 9y agoSometimes fair. But there have been a lot of cases of people unknowingly using data abroad and getting a bill for like £500 for half a GB of data which would fairly cost maybe £5.
- Thimothy 9y agoWhy is expensive? I get that in the times of analog cable, connection centers between different countries networks were cumbersome, and a service that needed to be payed exclusively by those that used it, but these days of interconnected everything? I have still to see a reason in this thread that justifies the higher prices. If connections between different companies in a country work without significant cost, why is different between (european) countries? Damn, most of the time are the same company! It's price gouging and a racket.
- will_hughes 9y agoConsider the case of a small national telco that happens to have a large number of incoming tourists. There's an additional burden on their network, and they should be able to recoup some of that cost. But almost every carrier I've seen would charge extortionate rates - hundreds or thousands of times the price they would charge their local customers for.