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EU mobile roaming charges ending in 2016. |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North London
Posts: 15,477
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EU mobile roaming charges ending in 2016.
The EU commissioner plans to steadily scrap mobile phone charges.
On 1 July 2014, you won't pay for incoming calls wherever you take your mobile in the EU. By 2016, the plan is to scrap mobile phone roaming charges across the EU altogether. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24056369 http://ec.europa.eu/news/science/130916_en.htm This plans will require agreement from all 28 EU member states and will need to be passed through the EU parliament before May 2014. On 22 May 2014, we'll all be voting for a new EU parliament. Looks like the plans have the backing of the UK government. http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2...harges-by-2016 But what will this all mean for the mobile phone users across the EU ? Could we see phone mergers and offers of pan-EU mobile phone contracts ? What if you were to work in another part of the EU, no need to arrange a SIM in the country you visit. Nor for those visiting the UK. |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Dundee, Scotland
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Bollocks!!
Happens just when i come back from Kefalonia in June ![]()
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#3 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 3,286
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Quote:
But what will this all mean for the mobile phone users across the EU ? Could we see phone mergers and offers of pan-EU mobile phone contracts ?
Certain EE contracts already include unlimited international calls and data across all EU countries and most non-EU European countries too. A few others have fixed price or inclusive (zero-charge) roaming in most EU countries as well. We should be pushing more for those rather than pan-EU laws that still let mobile operators get away with charging £1.50 a minute for Switzerland and Norway because they're technically not EU. |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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Its a great idea and long overdue. When I'm abroad I use a local PAYG sim card but it would be a lot easier to not have to mess about swapping sim's or relying on the likes of Skype.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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As a friend of mine, Guy Middleton, from Three said on the BBC article from September (the audio link embedded) there is a risk here that the EU is going to relax certain other restrictions to sweeten the deal of losing out on the cash cow that is international roaming (especially charges for data) and that will see other prices rise. If it stops the tight regulation on wholesale charges, it could be rather bad news.
In fact, I think that whether you believe what Three say or not (but bear in mind Three went ahead and launched The One Plan ahead of planned reduction in interconnect rates, and has now started to introduce 'free roaming' long before being forced to*) it's pretty obvious that the big networks are going to try and work out how to recoup the lost revenue - and that will probably mean, sadly, the usual cartel-like approach of all getting together to increase other charges or finding new fees to charge. Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see what actually happens. Given most operators are now the very dumb-pipes that everyone feared, it will also be interesting to see if Vodafone is going to try and do something like buy BSkyB or Virgin to enable it to sell more in one big package - and get the average monthly spend from its customers up. * Going beyond the EU too, such as Hong Kong, USA and Australia. Something the EU/EC plan won't be covering, so expect sky high rates to continue to be charged when you aren't in an EU member state. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Quote:
* Going beyond the EU too, such as Hong Kong, USA and Australia. Something the EU/EC plan won't be covering, so expect sky high rates to continue to be charged when you aren't in an EU member state.
If they already do that as it is, for between £3 a day and £3 a month, how hard do we really have to push to force them to do it for "free"? |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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Quote:
We should be pushing more for those rather than pan-EU laws that still let mobile operators get away with charging £1.50 a minute for Switzerland and Norway because they're technically not EU. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 695
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Quote:
Certain EE contracts already include unlimited international calls and data across all EU countries and most non-EU European countries too.
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#9 |
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Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see what actually happens.
Just EU airline deregulation has brought about pan-EU budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet, perhaps we will see (for instance), Vodafone offering a service like "Vodafone Europe, 4G sim only deal across the EU for £50/€65 per month". That sort of thing... For comparison, what are typical 4G SIM only deals in the US ? |
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#10 |
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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It's hard to tell about the US deals, especially 4G. For one, a lot of '4G' is just 3G HSPA+/DC-HSPA and some of the tariffs that offer large amounts of data offer xxMB at full 4G speeds before dropping down to 2G and ridiculously slow, almost unusable, speeds for the rest.
There are definitely too many tariffs though. EE has now gone mad with its range, especially since the introduction of single and double speed tariffs. Oh, and the tariffs that include EU roaming for voice and text (but discounted bundles for data, which are still rather high IMO). If phone operators are forced to reduce the number of tariffs like the energy companies that might be a good thing. |
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#11 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Quote:
Where do you get any data roaming included with EE plans?
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#12 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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I'll dig out the link which reads that EU would like a market more like the US. The EU has a population and geographical spread comparable with the EU. In the US, there are four major mobile providers, where as in the EU, there are 100.
There may be only four providers in the US but that's why they pay way way more than we do here. Quote:
For comparison, what are typical 4G SIM only deals in the US ?
$100 a month for a 4GB plan. $50 for 500MB.
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#13 |
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Join Date: Oct 2005
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In the meantime shall we reduce to 3 languages as well across the whole of Europe?
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There may be only four providers in the US but that's why they pay way way more than we do here.
$100 a month for a 4GB plan. $50 for 500MB. My £26 per month 4G SIM only Voda deal - plus £3 euro traveller when needed, seems better value. |
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#14 |
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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Quote:
Sorry, typo. I meant texts. Not thinking straight today...
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#15 |
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As an aside,
Does anyone know of any websites based in the UK which sell PAYG Sims for countries abroad? I am due to travel to Ireland and need an Irish o2 PAYG sim - yeh I could buy in Ireland, but I am looking to be organised. Cheers, Rick. |
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#16 |
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 10,276
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But Cameron and his loony anti-EU cronies want to take the UK out of the EU so what they agree may not apply even if it's in the best interests of mobile phone consumers.
Happily Scotland has a choice and can make a decision in 2014 that allows it's citizens to benefit from EU legislation without the anti-immigration nonsense that the Cameron UK government and the Daily Mail are obsessed with. |
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#17 |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
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I think some of the EU policy like this new EU Military they want to form. But ideas like this and the grants for broadband do clearly show that the EU is also worthwhile. Obviously biggest advantage is the one market policy.
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#18 |
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But Cameron and his loony anti-EU cronies want to take the UK out of the EU so what they agree may not apply even if it's in the best interests of mobile phone consumers.
And then there's UKIP which has forced every party to try and find a way of convincing people not to vote for them (UKIP). |
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#19 |
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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But Cameron and his loony anti-EU cronies want to take the UK out of the EU so what they agree may not apply even if it's in the best interests of mobile phone consumers.
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#20 |
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I'm pretty sure Cameron doesn't want us out of the EU
As well as capped EU mobile roaming charges, there are other consumer benefits for staying in the EU. http://www.the-eu-and-me.org.uk/what...-for-consumers Even if British voters do vote 'yes' to us leaving the EU, you can imagine the lobbying from British business on the the UK government team negotiating our exit. And here, I am thinking of Ryanair, Tesco, EasyJet, Vodafone, EE (part owned by Deutsche Telecom)... Anyhow, looks like the House of Lords could well scupper Wharton's EU referendum bill. But that's being discussed elsewhere. |
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#21 |
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Quote:
As an aside,
Does anyone know of any websites based in the UK which sell PAYG Sims for countries abroad? I am due to travel to Ireland and need an Irish o2 PAYG sim - yeh I could buy in Ireland, but I am looking to be organised. Cheers, Rick. |
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#22 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Quote:
As an aside,
Does anyone know of any websites based in the UK which sell PAYG Sims for countries abroad? I am due to travel to Ireland and need an Irish o2 PAYG sim - yeh I could buy in Ireland, but I am looking to be organised. Cheers, Rick. How long are you planning to spend there though. That sim charges 0.19 eur a minute to local landlines and you've got all the hassle of topping the sim up etc. Any UK sim will charge 24p a minute- that's 0.29 eur with much less hassle- are you sure it is worth it? |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Farnborough, Hampshire
Posts: 299
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It's the internet I would use more than calls etc
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#24 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Quote:
It's the internet I would use more than calls etc
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Farnborough, Hampshire
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Might be worth it then. That sim charges a euro a day for the internet, which should be tolerable for a short trip. 50mb is a reasonable allowance too. Not saying it's a unbeatable deal, you could probably do better, but it would be cheaper than racking up roaming charges.
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