8 ms·

Removing EU roaming charges is a big deal (2014)

129 points by user_235711 12y ago

cameldrv 12y ago
This article is from a year ago, and since then, the implementation of this has been delayed until at least 2018 [1]. The good news is that the latest drop (last year) of statutory roaming rates has made roaming within the EU much cheaper if you shop around a bit, but we're sadly still far from the way it is in the U.S. where you don't have to think about the fact that you're 1000 km away. [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31737635 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31737635
- tonfa 12y ago
  And I still don't agree with the fact that it opens the market. AFAIK operators can still add conditions like the phone as to be used primarily in country X, which means you can't just get an abo in country X and use it mostly in country Y.
- madaxe_again 12y ago
  The whole thing is a sham, and unless it's backed up with a big financial stick, nothing will happen. A month or so back while abroad in the EU, my operator sent a message along the lines of 'Great news! Data roaming is free in the EU! We are AWESOME! Please note that this does not include email or internet access, and is restricted to web access. To our site."
  - peteretep 12y ago
    > unless it's backed up with a big financial stick If there's something the EU have shown, it's that they're willing to use big financial sticks.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - madaxe_again 12y ago
      Willing, but ineffectual. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pro-EU, but they consistently fall flat on their faces when it comes to enforcement.
  - Atropos 12y ago
    This is just blind EU hate, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulati... how war the roaming charges have dropped over the years. The costs are much lower than in geographically near but non-EU countries like Switzerland or Norway.
    - madaxe_again 12y ago
      No, this is mobile operator hate, and your reading comprehension sucks - see my comment directly above. That document describes an alternate reality - I sure as hell don't get those tariffs from Telefonica.
      - Atropos 12y ago
        You were complaining about lacking enforcement by the EU in your other comment. Firstly this is misplaced in this case - there is no central EU telecom regulator so it is up to the national member states to enforce it. Secondly the quoted prices accurately describe reality once a cross-border element comes in - the EU cannot regulate your home market; for this reason, SMS are cheaper for me when I'm abroad then when I'm home as well. If it is true that the tariffs do not apply for you, then just write an email to your telecom regulator, for example Spain would be http://www.cnmc.es/ http://www.cnmc.es/
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  >where you don't have to think about the fact that you're 1000 km away. We pay for that through increased rates due to covering such a huge landmass, most of which is sparsely populated. Wyoming alone is larger than England and has only 600,000 people. I wonder if this roaming agreement is being pushed back because of the massive costs it would incur. Your cheap Parisian data plan isn't going to cheap on a Greek island. Its foolish to expect to pay the same rate. I can't see this not raising rates.
  - vilmosi 12y ago
    The high rates in the US have nothing to do with area size, it's due to monopolistic services, where you have 1 maybe 2 telcos to choose from in most areas. Free roaming in Europe has many problems to face, but infrastructure isn't one of them.
    - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
      >The high rates in the US have nothing to do with area size, it's due to monopolistic services That's an opinion not a fact. There are four major carriers and several MVNOs in the US. That's competitive with a lot of European markets, where its easier to break into considering the much smaller population/size. Heck, the entirety of Finland's population is about half the Chicagoland metro area. >Free roaming in Europe has many problems to face, but infrastructure isn't one of them. I don't see how someone with a budget plan in a highly dense country is going to be entitled to have the same economics roaming in countries with low desnity where the cost, per sq kilometer, for 3G/4G service is much, much higher. A lot of the cost for US service is making sure people out in the boonies have service as well. That comes at a higher cost than some of the more ultra dense European markets. Its subsidised nation-wide, which makes sense, but if you have a cheap Finnish plan because your tiny country is easy to wire up, well, don't expect those rates in rural Bulgaria or on a Greek island.
      - walterbell 12y ago
        Are there economic benefits to a single addressable market of 300M people, which is made possible by the large geographical area of the US? Another comparison point is Canada, which has a large physical area with about 10% of the US population.
- teddyh 12y ago
  The banning of roaming charges are repeatedly being proposed in the EU, and later the proposal is canceled once all the good PR has been gained for now. See this two year old op-ed from (then Member of European Parliament) Christian Engström, which explains the procedure (in Swedish): https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article16919673.ab https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article16919673.ab
carlob 12y ago
I've been recently moving back and forth between Italy and France and there is one thing that bothers me with eurotariff: if I'm in Italy, a French friend is visiting me, and I send them a text with my non-roaming Italian phone I pay about 30 cents and this sum is not regulated anywhere. If I fish out my French SIM card then that amount is capped to 7 cents. Funnily enough once I finish my monthly allotment of SMS's, I can still message my Italian friends, from my Italian phone at 10 cents per message, which is more expensive than what I'd pay roaming and is not regulated. So what I'm saying is that already today, without roaming charges being abolished, using a foreign phone is generally cheaper than anything without a plan in Italy, and I know that Italy is one of the cheapest countries in Europe for non-monthly deals.
- riffraff 12y ago
  EU passed some legislation some time ago where "international" SMS should be capped at 0.11€, so maybe you should try to get a more recent contract or complain through your local consumer support org.
  - carlob 12y ago
    They are now capped at 0.07 actually. National ones are not capped, and that's exactly my point.
    - riffraff 12y ago
      but if you send a message from your italian phone to a french friend in italy (which I think has a french SIM) that would be still international, wouldn't it? My understanding of the SMS thing is "nation of receiving phone operator" not "nation where the receiver is".
      - carlob 12y ago
        Italian SIM in Italy -> Italian SIM wherever = 10 Italian SIM in Italy -> French SIM wherever = 30 Italian SIM in France -> any European SIM wherever = 7
JonCox 12y ago
Top tip if you do a lot of 'roaming' (and are UK based), join the Three network: http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home I've not quite figured out why more networks don't have deals like this in place, as a customer it can take like 1 holiday to wipe out price differences between network base prices.
- kalleboo 12y ago
  I never understood why Vodafone didn't do it. They have a massive presence globally (wikipedia says networks in 21 countries and partners in 40), and they could overnight capture 100% of the traveling businessman market if they'd get all their networks under one tariff.
  - tormeh 12y ago
    Roaming is a big source of income for many carriers, probably including Vodafone. Since customers rarely evaluate carriers on roaming charges it's a free-for-all.
  - DrJokepu 12y ago
    My understanding is that certain other European Vodafone subsidiaries (e.g. Vodafone Hungary[0]) do it, but not Vodafone UK for some reason. [0] http://www.vodafone.hu/eng/phones-plans/pay-monthly-plans/red/services#roaming http://www.vodafone.hu/eng/phones-plans/pay-monthly-plans/re...
- flurdy 12y ago
  Does the Three "Feel at home" have any small print? Is the data capped, or throttled? Is the coverage where the free roaming is included limited? It is tempting as it does seem to include the 3 countries I split my year between (UK, Norway & Spain), but it is £2 to £4 more per month than my current Giffgaff sim.
  - guava 12y ago
    This is the small print for "Feel at Home": http://www.three.co.uk/Privacy_Cookies/Terms_Conditions?content_aid=1220482374514 http://www.three.co.uk/Privacy_Cookies/Terms_Conditions?cont... Points of interest: * Unlimited data in the UK translates to 25GB * "Three reserves the right to suspend the international roaming when in a selected destination if the customer’s use exceeds any of the above limits for two (2) months within a twelve (12) month period. The service will be reinstated once the customer returns to the UK." * "This offer is intended to be used by UK residents travelling abroad, and Three reserves the right to suspend the service in the event the UK allowance is used exclusively abroad for three (3) months within a twelve (12) month period."
humanfromearth 12y ago
I'm a customer of Free.fr in France and have been to Portugal and Romania recently and had no roaming charges (though it was limited to 7 days and 3GB). I don't know if this is something all operators do, but it was great. I was able to use Google Maps and didn't have that 'roaming' feeling associated with it. It was amazing!
- Uberphallus 12y ago
  Another Free.fr, didn't know about that. Do you have any link?
  - ulysseb 12y ago
    Here is the link (in french): https://mobile.free.fr/assistance/677.html https://mobile.free.fr/assistance/677.html And the limit is 35 days, not 7. I used this in Italy and it worked perfectly well.
joosters 12y ago
Removing the roaming charges would be fantastic. At the moment, there are caps on the roaming charges, which is a start. It's scary to see what they want to charge without these caps. For instance, I recently traveled to Italy and then Japan. In Italy (capped): Calls 18p/minute, data 19p/MB In Japan (unregulated): Calls 149p/minute, data 800p/MB Data is over 40x as expensive ! The pricing that telecoms companies charge when they can are obscene. (The capped 19p/MB is still vastly overpriced IMO as well...)
- saiya-jin 12y ago
  Living in Switzerland, which is tiny country surrounded by EU countries (CH is not part of EU, its citizens had a public vote and decided cleverly to not join), my crappy operator Lebara charges me when going to France (+- 2km from my home or work) - 42 CHF (aka 40 euro) per single MB! Calls usually stick to the range of 2-4 euro/min, incoming also charged. SMS cost 0.8 euro. Pretty obvious I never used their data services abroad, but being offline when traveling is actually a big plus for me. (just to explain, it's one of very few pay-as-you-go operators @ Suisse, for people like me who don't use their smartphones that much and have offline maps for navigation)
  - father_of_two 12y ago
    You can use one of those "world sim" cards to get cheaper connectivity when you cross the border. Check http://airbalticcard.com/ http://airbalticcard.com/ for example.
  - vitobcn 12y ago
    In Switzerland, you can use Yallo (yallo.ch - they use the Sunrise network) which has a flat package for 39 CHF/month allowing unlimited calls across both CH+EU. If you happen to be roaming abroad, they have data plans for 10 days / 100MB for 15 CHF, which is not great, but way cheaper than the example you gave above.
- shimo5037 12y ago
  FWIW, while the price for data in Japan may have seemed ridiculous (and well, it is), it's not actually that much different from what you would have paid without a fixed data plan even if you were a local. Definitely on the same order of magnitude at least. With the big carriers here you pay 0.05yen per packet, where a packet is 128 bytes. For example, looking at my bill from March, I used 6,971,294 packets (0.84GB) which would have cost me a grand total of 348,564yen (~$3000). I "only" paid 5200yen (~$50) for it because I'm signed up for a fixed data plan like everyone else. The exorbitant base prices are only there to make sure that everyone signs up for the expensive plans without too many complaints. Oh, and did I say that all three big carriers have the exact same prices with more or less the exact same plans? :)
_mdb_ 12y ago
Yes it would be a big deal. But it is even a bigger deal/shame that the telecom lobby was able to delay the decision. Where do I need to sign the petition to push this through? (Or do I need to create one)
- markvdb 12y ago
  It might be more than just a delay. The new commissioner being more in bed with industry lobbyists than the previous one for example...
coldcode 12y ago
How does this affect a US user going to an EU country? I am going to the UK and Germany in a month.
- markvdb 12y ago
  This is about roaming _within_ the EU. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulati...
- matwood 12y ago
  If you do a lot of traveling in the EU from the US, T-Mo is about the best option short of buying a sim while in the EU. Unlimited texts, data[1] and very cheap calls are awesome. I never think about my phone with traveling now and just use it like I'm in the US. The only downside is there are some countries in eastern EU not yet on the plan. [1] The data isn't 4g, but for travel related items like TripAdvisor, maps, etc... it has always worked fine for me.
- corford 12y ago
  If you buy a pay as you go sim in the UK and use that when you're in Germany, you'll benefit from the existing roaming charge caps.
- thisone 12y ago
  make sure your phone is unlocked and buy a pay and go sim card here. You can easily do your research before you leave to find out any necessary details.
MCRed 12y ago
People never really seem to consider the unintended consequences of these kinds of regulations. You know, Apple and Google both were prescient and at different times (late 90s for Apple early 2000s for Google) they both attempted to obtain licenses for unused spectrum from the FCC to create nation wide high speed wireless data networks... for free. IT was supposed to be like WIFI, unregulated and using spread spectrum, so there could be a free market in data for mobile devices. Both companies tried, both companies had different approaches, but both companies supported the other (well, apple supported google, not sure google was around when Apple tried). And both efforts totally failed.... because there is no money in giving away spectrum. For the "Common good" doesn't matter. The government makes billions from selling something it doesn't own and politicians themselves make billions more from not changing the situation once these large companies have bought their monopolies. Taking just the consumer viewpoint "yay, free roaming!" is naive. As is just assuming that the reason for roaming charges in the first place is to cheat you. Roaming charges are usually the consequence of higher costs for the network you're visiting. In the early days of the market in the USA, they weren't charges-- eg additional fees-- so much as the fact that the "normal" price was a discount, because your plan had negotiated with the individual carriers in a variety of states to build up a network. (Remember the FCC's PCS auctions only allowed a maximum of three entities to have a license in a given city. Thus if metroPCS, swiftel and TexasComm got Austin licenses, then AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, in order to EVEN OFFER SERVICE in Austin Texas would have to do deals with those three companies. This greatly increased costs. Where they could play ball they built a network of fixed prices... and where they couldn't, the "roaming charges" were the additional fee that these people with their state granted tri-opoly would charge AT&T customers when they were visting Austin. In order to even have service.) Thus these roaming charges are part of the governments exploitation of the common good for profit. (wireless spectrum with spread spectrum technology is nearly infinite. There could be a thousand carriers in Austin without interference. IT's not like the old days of Radio and TV where you needed exclusive "Channels." And spread spectrum technology was invented for WWII by the actress Hedy Lamar, so it's not like it wasn't in use in the 1990s. No, the government had a regulatory framework that was based on the pre-war era and gave it the ability to sell out the public to the tune of many billions of dollars. They also got to create major monopolies and have been reaping the benefits (in campaign contributions) ever since. While we've suffered from lack of competition. Due to the monopolies the government has created there has been a great deal of consolidation in the industry, the TexasComms and Swiftels of the past have largely been bought by new entities like Verizon which were created-- at great cost and at great acquisition premiums-- to consolidate this already competition limited industry. And because of the exclusive rights sold in those auctions new entrants cant come aboard. Consequently when you have a network like this, and you ban roaming charges (Say they did the same here, I don't know what will happen in europe because I'm less familiar with their history) ... the result will be either that people's overall costs go up -- eg: The carrier just builds roaming charges into the standard rate and pockets the difference when you're not roaming... or they will start introducing technology "Differentiators" that are technically different but whose impact is negligible. EG: "3's new LTE3! Only available in the UK! sorry france, your towers haven't been upgraded." This assumes there are higher costs for roaming in europe as there are in the USA. To consider economic moves like this you have to consider the landscape and the consequences of making them. IT's not like there's free money. It didn't have to be this way. The good guys-- Apple and Google both tried to fix it. Other efforts have come since then, more profit oriented, but still competition for the mobile data marketplace. They were also killed. Mandating free roaming charges will only shift the costs... the root of the problem is this artificial monopoly and that it is essentially corruption designed to line politicians pockets.
jpalomaki 12y ago
I'm currently paying flat 40€ monthly fee for my practically unlimited 4G (max speed 100Mbits) subscription in Finland. 60€/month and I would get max 300Mbits. Obviously the top speeds are not available everywhere, but the in average the speeds are quite good and network coverage is not an issue. We currently have three operators. Two of them are completely local (Elisa, DNA) and third one (TeliaSonera) is active in nordic and baltic countries. In many other European countries it is difficult (or impossible?) to find subscriptions with similar pricing. In quite many places there seems to be quite low (few gigs) transfer limits and for extra data you need to pay extra. Hard to see how the system could be setup so that the local operators could continue charging their high fees and yet I would be able to roam on their network without paying any extra. The only way I can think of how we could complete get rid of roaming charges would be drastic consolidation on the operator market. When traveling abroad I wouldn't be roaming at all - I would be always on my home network. Maybe the consolidation would be good on European level, but I'm a bit worried that at least for me this would mean much higher prices for mobile data. That's why my wish is that EU would just concentrate on lowering the roaming charges to more acceptable level instead of trying to get rid of them completely.
- gdrherh 12y ago
  I'm a Swede living in Germany. Here in Germany, all telcos basically count your download limit in MB's and you don't get many of them. Speeds feel like 2007, and only one company have 4G (last time I checked, maybe 1/2 years ago). Seemingly a week after I top up my prepaid, I get a text (of course impossible to get service in English or any other language by the way) about having used up almost all of my lot. And I make sure not to use services that are video or picture heavy. I have nothing but bad experiences with German telcos - my girlfriend had to fight customer service (hah!) for half a year before they finally let her end her contract and agreed she was right. Same for me when I last left Germany. If I could, I would throw out my German phone company this instant.
  - mgraupner 12y ago
    That there is only one 4G provider is certainly not true. Please check your facts: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution#LTE-Situation_verschiedener_L.C3.A4nder https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution#LTE-Situat... All 4 major players offer 4G, just not in every corner of Germany.
aspirin 12y ago
In some cases this rule could be bad for customers, too. In Finland uncapped 4G data with monthly price is the norm, and if the carrier cannot charge extra for data roaming in other EU countries, it can only lead to higher prices or discontinuation of uncapped data. Carriers still have to pay each other roaming fees after this rule is in place, right?

129 points by user_235711 12y ago

This article is from a year ago, and since then, the implementation of this has been delayed until at least 2018 [1]. The good news is that the latest drop (last year) of statutory roaming rates has made roaming within the EU much cheaper if you shop around a bit, but we're sadly still far from the way it is in the U.S. where you don't have to think about the fact that you're 1000 km away. [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31737635 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31737635

tonfa 12y ago
And I still don't agree with the fact that it opens the market. AFAIK operators can still add conditions like the phone as to be used primarily in country X, which means you can't just get an abo in country X and use it mostly in country Y.
madaxe_again 12y ago
The whole thing is a sham, and unless it's backed up with a big financial stick, nothing will happen. A month or so back while abroad in the EU, my operator sent a message along the lines of 'Great news! Data roaming is free in the EU! We are AWESOME! Please note that this does not include email or internet access, and is restricted to web access. To our site."
- peteretep 12y ago
  > unless it's backed up with a big financial stick If there's something the EU have shown, it's that they're willing to use big financial sticks.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - madaxe_again 12y ago
    Willing, but ineffectual. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pro-EU, but they consistently fall flat on their faces when it comes to enforcement.
- Atropos 12y ago
  This is just blind EU hate, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulati... how war the roaming charges have dropped over the years. The costs are much lower than in geographically near but non-EU countries like Switzerland or Norway.
  - madaxe_again 12y ago
    No, this is mobile operator hate, and your reading comprehension sucks - see my comment directly above. That document describes an alternate reality - I sure as hell don't get those tariffs from Telefonica.
    - Atropos 12y ago
      You were complaining about lacking enforcement by the EU in your other comment. Firstly this is misplaced in this case - there is no central EU telecom regulator so it is up to the national member states to enforce it. Secondly the quoted prices accurately describe reality once a cross-border element comes in - the EU cannot regulate your home market; for this reason, SMS are cheaper for me when I'm abroad then when I'm home as well. If it is true that the tariffs do not apply for you, then just write an email to your telecom regulator, for example Spain would be http://www.cnmc.es/ http://www.cnmc.es/
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
>where you don't have to think about the fact that you're 1000 km away. We pay for that through increased rates due to covering such a huge landmass, most of which is sparsely populated. Wyoming alone is larger than England and has only 600,000 people. I wonder if this roaming agreement is being pushed back because of the massive costs it would incur. Your cheap Parisian data plan isn't going to cheap on a Greek island. Its foolish to expect to pay the same rate. I can't see this not raising rates.
- vilmosi 12y ago
  The high rates in the US have nothing to do with area size, it's due to monopolistic services, where you have 1 maybe 2 telcos to choose from in most areas. Free roaming in Europe has many problems to face, but infrastructure isn't one of them.
  - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    >The high rates in the US have nothing to do with area size, it's due to monopolistic services That's an opinion not a fact. There are four major carriers and several MVNOs in the US. That's competitive with a lot of European markets, where its easier to break into considering the much smaller population/size. Heck, the entirety of Finland's population is about half the Chicagoland metro area. >Free roaming in Europe has many problems to face, but infrastructure isn't one of them. I don't see how someone with a budget plan in a highly dense country is going to be entitled to have the same economics roaming in countries with low desnity where the cost, per sq kilometer, for 3G/4G service is much, much higher. A lot of the cost for US service is making sure people out in the boonies have service as well. That comes at a higher cost than some of the more ultra dense European markets. Its subsidised nation-wide, which makes sense, but if you have a cheap Finnish plan because your tiny country is easy to wire up, well, don't expect those rates in rural Bulgaria or on a Greek island.
    - walterbell 12y ago
      Are there economic benefits to a single addressable market of 300M people, which is made possible by the large geographical area of the US? Another comparison point is Canada, which has a large physical area with about 10% of the US population.
teddyh 12y ago
The banning of roaming charges are repeatedly being proposed in the EU, and later the proposal is canceled once all the good PR has been gained for now. See this two year old op-ed from (then Member of European Parliament) Christian Engström, which explains the procedure (in Swedish): https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article16919673.ab https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article16919673.ab

carlob 12y ago

I've been recently moving back and forth between Italy and France and there is one thing that bothers me with eurotariff: if I'm in Italy, a French friend is visiting me, and I send them a text with my non-roaming Italian phone I pay about 30 cents and this sum is not regulated anywhere. If I fish out my French SIM card then that amount is capped to 7 cents. Funnily enough once I finish my monthly allotment of SMS's, I can still message my Italian friends, from my Italian phone at 10 cents per message, which is more expensive than what I'd pay roaming and is not regulated. So what I'm saying is that already today, without roaming charges being abolished, using a foreign phone is generally cheaper than anything without a plan in Italy, and I know that Italy is one of the cheapest countries in Europe for non-monthly deals.

riffraff 12y ago
EU passed some legislation some time ago where "international" SMS should be capped at 0.11€, so maybe you should try to get a more recent contract or complain through your local consumer support org.
- carlob 12y ago
  They are now capped at 0.07 actually. National ones are not capped, and that's exactly my point.
  - riffraff 12y ago
    but if you send a message from your italian phone to a french friend in italy (which I think has a french SIM) that would be still international, wouldn't it? My understanding of the SMS thing is "nation of receiving phone operator" not "nation where the receiver is".
    - carlob 12y ago
      Italian SIM in Italy -> Italian SIM wherever = 10 Italian SIM in Italy -> French SIM wherever = 30 Italian SIM in France -> any European SIM wherever = 7

JonCox 12y ago

Top tip if you do a lot of 'roaming' (and are UK based), join the Three network: http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home I've not quite figured out why more networks don't have deals like this in place, as a customer it can take like 1 holiday to wipe out price differences between network base prices.

kalleboo 12y ago
I never understood why Vodafone didn't do it. They have a massive presence globally (wikipedia says networks in 21 countries and partners in 40), and they could overnight capture 100% of the traveling businessman market if they'd get all their networks under one tariff.
- tormeh 12y ago
  Roaming is a big source of income for many carriers, probably including Vodafone. Since customers rarely evaluate carriers on roaming charges it's a free-for-all.
- DrJokepu 12y ago
  My understanding is that certain other European Vodafone subsidiaries (e.g. Vodafone Hungary[0]) do it, but not Vodafone UK for some reason. [0] http://www.vodafone.hu/eng/phones-plans/pay-monthly-plans/red/services#roaming http://www.vodafone.hu/eng/phones-plans/pay-monthly-plans/re...
flurdy 12y ago
Does the Three "Feel at home" have any small print? Is the data capped, or throttled? Is the coverage where the free roaming is included limited? It is tempting as it does seem to include the 3 countries I split my year between (UK, Norway & Spain), but it is £2 to £4 more per month than my current Giffgaff sim.
- guava 12y ago
  This is the small print for "Feel at Home": http://www.three.co.uk/Privacy_Cookies/Terms_Conditions?content_aid=1220482374514 http://www.three.co.uk/Privacy_Cookies/Terms_Conditions?cont... Points of interest: * Unlimited data in the UK translates to 25GB * "Three reserves the right to suspend the international roaming when in a selected destination if the customer’s use exceeds any of the above limits for two (2) months within a twelve (12) month period. The service will be reinstated once the customer returns to the UK." * "This offer is intended to be used by UK residents travelling abroad, and Three reserves the right to suspend the service in the event the UK allowance is used exclusively abroad for three (3) months within a twelve (12) month period."

humanfromearth 12y ago

I'm a customer of Free.fr in France and have been to Portugal and Romania recently and had no roaming charges (though it was limited to 7 days and 3GB). I don't know if this is something all operators do, but it was great. I was able to use Google Maps and didn't have that 'roaming' feeling associated with it. It was amazing!

Uberphallus 12y ago
Another Free.fr, didn't know about that. Do you have any link?
- ulysseb 12y ago
  Here is the link (in french): https://mobile.free.fr/assistance/677.html https://mobile.free.fr/assistance/677.html And the limit is 35 days, not 7. I used this in Italy and it worked perfectly well.

joosters 12y ago

Removing the roaming charges would be fantastic. At the moment, there are caps on the roaming charges, which is a start. It's scary to see what they want to charge without these caps. For instance, I recently traveled to Italy and then Japan. In Italy (capped): Calls 18p/minute, data 19p/MB In Japan (unregulated): Calls 149p/minute, data 800p/MB Data is over 40x as expensive ! The pricing that telecoms companies charge when they can are obscene. (The capped 19p/MB is still vastly overpriced IMO as well...)

saiya-jin 12y ago
Living in Switzerland, which is tiny country surrounded by EU countries (CH is not part of EU, its citizens had a public vote and decided cleverly to not join), my crappy operator Lebara charges me when going to France (+- 2km from my home or work) - 42 CHF (aka 40 euro) per single MB! Calls usually stick to the range of 2-4 euro/min, incoming also charged. SMS cost 0.8 euro. Pretty obvious I never used their data services abroad, but being offline when traveling is actually a big plus for me. (just to explain, it's one of very few pay-as-you-go operators @ Suisse, for people like me who don't use their smartphones that much and have offline maps for navigation)
- father_of_two 12y ago
  You can use one of those "world sim" cards to get cheaper connectivity when you cross the border. Check http://airbalticcard.com/ http://airbalticcard.com/ for example.
- vitobcn 12y ago
  In Switzerland, you can use Yallo (yallo.ch - they use the Sunrise network) which has a flat package for 39 CHF/month allowing unlimited calls across both CH+EU. If you happen to be roaming abroad, they have data plans for 10 days / 100MB for 15 CHF, which is not great, but way cheaper than the example you gave above.
shimo5037 12y ago
FWIW, while the price for data in Japan may have seemed ridiculous (and well, it is), it's not actually that much different from what you would have paid without a fixed data plan even if you were a local. Definitely on the same order of magnitude at least. With the big carriers here you pay 0.05yen per packet, where a packet is 128 bytes. For example, looking at my bill from March, I used 6,971,294 packets (0.84GB) which would have cost me a grand total of 348,564yen (~$3000). I "only" paid 5200yen (~$50) for it because I'm signed up for a fixed data plan like everyone else. The exorbitant base prices are only there to make sure that everyone signs up for the expensive plans without too many complaints. Oh, and did I say that all three big carriers have the exact same prices with more or less the exact same plans? :)

_mdb_ 12y ago

Yes it would be a big deal. But it is even a bigger deal/shame that the telecom lobby was able to delay the decision. Where do I need to sign the petition to push this through? (Or do I need to create one)

markvdb 12y ago
It might be more than just a delay. The new commissioner being more in bed with industry lobbyists than the previous one for example...

coldcode 12y ago

How does this affect a US user going to an EU country? I am going to the UK and Germany in a month.

markvdb 12y ago
This is about roaming _within_ the EU. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulati...
matwood 12y ago
If you do a lot of traveling in the EU from the US, T-Mo is about the best option short of buying a sim while in the EU. Unlimited texts, data[1] and very cheap calls are awesome. I never think about my phone with traveling now and just use it like I'm in the US. The only downside is there are some countries in eastern EU not yet on the plan. [1] The data isn't 4g, but for travel related items like TripAdvisor, maps, etc... it has always worked fine for me.
corford 12y ago
If you buy a pay as you go sim in the UK and use that when you're in Germany, you'll benefit from the existing roaming charge caps.
thisone 12y ago
make sure your phone is unlocked and buy a pay and go sim card here. You can easily do your research before you leave to find out any necessary details.

MCRed 12y ago

People never really seem to consider the unintended consequences of these kinds of regulations. You know, Apple and Google both were prescient and at different times (late 90s for Apple early 2000s for Google) they both attempted to obtain licenses for unused spectrum from the FCC to create nation wide high speed wireless data networks... for free. IT was supposed to be like WIFI, unregulated and using spread spectrum, so there could be a free market in data for mobile devices. Both companies tried, both companies had different approaches, but both companies supported the other (well, apple supported google, not sure google was around when Apple tried). And both efforts totally failed.... because there is no money in giving away spectrum. For the "Common good" doesn't matter. The government makes billions from selling something it doesn't own and politicians themselves make billions more from not changing the situation once these large companies have bought their monopolies. Taking just the consumer viewpoint "yay, free roaming!" is naive. As is just assuming that the reason for roaming charges in the first place is to cheat you. Roaming charges are usually the consequence of higher costs for the network you're visiting. In the early days of the market in the USA, they weren't charges-- eg additional fees-- so much as the fact that the "normal" price was a discount, because your plan had negotiated with the individual carriers in a variety of states to build up a network. (Remember the FCC's PCS auctions only allowed a maximum of three entities to have a license in a given city. Thus if metroPCS, swiftel and TexasComm got Austin licenses, then AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, in order to EVEN OFFER SERVICE in Austin Texas would have to do deals with those three companies. This greatly increased costs. Where they could play ball they built a network of fixed prices... and where they couldn't, the "roaming charges" were the additional fee that these people with their state granted tri-opoly would charge AT&T customers when they were visting Austin. In order to even have service.) Thus these roaming charges are part of the governments exploitation of the common good for profit. (wireless spectrum with spread spectrum technology is nearly infinite. There could be a thousand carriers in Austin without interference. IT's not like the old days of Radio and TV where you needed exclusive "Channels." And spread spectrum technology was invented for WWII by the actress Hedy Lamar, so it's not like it wasn't in use in the 1990s. No, the government had a regulatory framework that was based on the pre-war era and gave it the ability to sell out the public to the tune of many billions of dollars. They also got to create major monopolies and have been reaping the benefits (in campaign contributions) ever since. While we've suffered from lack of competition. Due to the monopolies the government has created there has been a great deal of consolidation in the industry, the TexasComms and Swiftels of the past have largely been bought by new entities like Verizon which were created-- at great cost and at great acquisition premiums-- to consolidate this already competition limited industry. And because of the exclusive rights sold in those auctions new entrants cant come aboard. Consequently when you have a network like this, and you ban roaming charges (Say they did the same here, I don't know what will happen in europe because I'm less familiar with their history) ... the result will be either that people's overall costs go up -- eg: The carrier just builds roaming charges into the standard rate and pockets the difference when you're not roaming... or they will start introducing technology "Differentiators" that are technically different but whose impact is negligible. EG: "3's new LTE3! Only available in the UK! sorry france, your towers haven't been upgraded." This assumes there are higher costs for roaming in europe as there are in the USA. To consider economic moves like this you have to consider the landscape and the consequences of making them. IT's not like there's free money. It didn't have to be this way. The good guys-- Apple and Google both tried to fix it. Other efforts have come since then, more profit oriented, but still competition for the mobile data marketplace. They were also killed. Mandating free roaming charges will only shift the costs... the root of the problem is this artificial monopoly and that it is essentially corruption designed to line politicians pockets.

jpalomaki 12y ago

I'm currently paying flat 40€ monthly fee for my practically unlimited 4G (max speed 100Mbits) subscription in Finland. 60€/month and I would get max 300Mbits. Obviously the top speeds are not available everywhere, but the in average the speeds are quite good and network coverage is not an issue. We currently have three operators. Two of them are completely local (Elisa, DNA) and third one (TeliaSonera) is active in nordic and baltic countries. In many other European countries it is difficult (or impossible?) to find subscriptions with similar pricing. In quite many places there seems to be quite low (few gigs) transfer limits and for extra data you need to pay extra. Hard to see how the system could be setup so that the local operators could continue charging their high fees and yet I would be able to roam on their network without paying any extra. The only way I can think of how we could complete get rid of roaming charges would be drastic consolidation on the operator market. When traveling abroad I wouldn't be roaming at all - I would be always on my home network. Maybe the consolidation would be good on European level, but I'm a bit worried that at least for me this would mean much higher prices for mobile data. That's why my wish is that EU would just concentrate on lowering the roaming charges to more acceptable level instead of trying to get rid of them completely.

gdrherh 12y ago
I'm a Swede living in Germany. Here in Germany, all telcos basically count your download limit in MB's and you don't get many of them. Speeds feel like 2007, and only one company have 4G (last time I checked, maybe 1/2 years ago). Seemingly a week after I top up my prepaid, I get a text (of course impossible to get service in English or any other language by the way) about having used up almost all of my lot. And I make sure not to use services that are video or picture heavy. I have nothing but bad experiences with German telcos - my girlfriend had to fight customer service (hah!) for half a year before they finally let her end her contract and agreed she was right. Same for me when I last left Germany. If I could, I would throw out my German phone company this instant.
- mgraupner 12y ago
  That there is only one 4G provider is certainly not true. Please check your facts: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution#LTE-Situation_verschiedener_L.C3.A4nder https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution#LTE-Situat... All 4 major players offer 4G, just not in every corner of Germany.

aspirin 12y ago

In some cases this rule could be bad for customers, too. In Finland uncapped 4G data with monthly price is the norm, and if the carrier cannot charge extra for data roaming in other EU countries, it can only lead to higher prices or discontinuation of uncapped data. Carriers still have to pay each other roaming fees after this rule is in place, right?