Calling Spain, Poland etc from your UK mobile? Weirdly it's cheaper once you're in th

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Former_MSE_Megan_F
Former_MSE_Megan_F Posts: 418 Forumite
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Calling a foreign number in the European Union from your mobile? Bizarrely it costs more if you do it from the UK than anywhere else in the EU under new roaming rules, which come into effect today....
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Calling Spain, Poland etc from your UK mobile? Weirdly it's cheaper once you're in the EU
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  • MiserlyMartin
    MiserlyMartin Posts: 2,236 Forumite
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    I had thought there was nothing stopping them continuing charging crazy prices to other countries when you are the UK. After all an international phone call is just that. So if you have a Spanish mobile and you are in Spain calling the UK on it, surely you must be paying international rates to the UK? Its not just us...
  • buglawton
    buglawton Posts: 9,235 Forumite
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    Three to Poland (and a list of 19 other countries) on PAYG is 3p/min, no catches or prefixes, so info in the MSE article is wrong. Other EU countries are included in Three's list of 20 while with a 3 digit prefix the international 3p list on Three PAYG is a long one.
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,420 Forumite
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    buglawton wrote: »
    Three to Poland (and a list of 19 other countries) on PAYG is 3p/min, no catches or prefixes, so info in the MSE article is wrong. Other EU countries are included in Three's list of 20 while with a 3 digit prefix the international 3p list on Three PAYG is a long one.
    Unfortunately, on a contract with Three it costs 46p/min to call a Spanish number from the UK, why it's such a difference to their PAYG @ 3p/min is beyond me. As with all things mobile phone related, it pays to do your research and not assume anything!
  • buglawton
    buglawton Posts: 9,235 Forumite
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    Frozen_up_north wrote: »
    Unfortunately, on a contract with Three it costs 46p/min to call a Spanish number from the UK, why it's such a difference to their PAYG @ 3p/min is beyond me. As with all things mobile phone related, it pays to do your research and not assume anything!
    I know, it's barmy, PAYG better than contract.
    I stick to PAYG these days anyway as there are so many ways, roaming or not, to accidentally rack up a huge data bill on contract.

    And with PAYG I don't need to lock my SIM in case of phone theft, that's another way to rack up £100s.
  • buglawton
    buglawton Posts: 9,235 Forumite
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    MiserlyMartin wrote: »
    I had thought there was nothing stopping them continuing charging crazy prices to other countries when you are the UK. After all an international phone call is just that. So if you have a Spanish mobile and you are in Spain calling the UK on it, surely you must be paying international rates to the UK? Its not just us...
    I think the eventual goal of the EU mandarin is flat pricing across whole EU, this would make it even better that analogous situations between US states or Chinese provinces.
  • phillw
    phillw Posts: 5,594 Forumite
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    "After all, it's a bit bizarre that if you call to book a Spanish restaurant on your UK mobile from home before you jet off, you'll pay a whopping international call cost, but save making the booking call until you arrive in Spain and it'd count as part of your free minutes."

    This isn't bizarre at all. You are in Spain, making a local phone call. The only thing that is transmitted internationally is the billing data, which is small and is probably batched up as it can take days.

    "And it's even more bizarre that if you call your grandma in Poland on your UK mobile while in Spain, that's part of your free minutes too."

    That is bizarre and it wouldn't surprise me if it's either untrue, or will be corrected later. As they are having to transport your call internationally, so it justifiably is an international call.
  • Plus
    Plus Posts: 433 Forumite
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    phillw wrote: »
    "And it's even more bizarre that if you call your grandma in Poland on your UK mobile while in Spain, that's part of your free minutes too."

    That is bizarre and it wouldn't surprise me if it's either untrue, or will be corrected later. As they are having to transport your call internationally, so it justifiably is an international call.

    It's not really. The cost for carrying the call internationally is now basically zero. That's why you can Skype or WhatsApp without caring too much about borders. The main bit that costs is the local infrastructure (the tower and its backhaul) and the billing (yes you have to pay to pay).
    For WhatsApp etc you provide the local infrastructure (your home or mobile internet connection) and pay somebody else for it, which is why WhatsApp is so cheap.

    Also a call from a UK mobile in Spain to a Spanish mobile is actually backhauled via the UK - that's how roaming works.

    The reason for the bizarreness is that the EU has powers to regulate roaming between member states, but not within member states. So a UK network is free to fleece you for UK to UK calls, but the EU can prevent them fleecing you when calling between countries.

    More charitably, the market for UK calls is competitive (lots of deals based on X mins/texts/MB) but the market for EU roaming is not competitive (try to find a UK network offering deals calling from one EU country to another - I've never seen one I'd ever want to use full-time). The EU has the option to either make it competitive (which it shows no sign of doing) or regulate. I think regulation is the only way to have a real 'single market' here.

    So instead of moaning about EU bizarreness the question we should now be asking the UK regulator is: why are people still paying 46p/min to call Spain from the UK, when that bears no relation whatever to the costs to the network of doing so? It's a punitive charge that's purely a cash-cow, right? And one they don't exactly shout on billboards.
  • ryan121
    ryan121 Posts: 209 Forumite
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    How is it bizarre? You aren't roaming when in the UK. These new rules apply to roaming.

    This post seems to show a lack of understanding of the problem the EU was trying to solve here.
  • d123
    d123 Posts: 8,621 Forumite
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    phillw wrote: »
    "And it's even more bizarre that if you call your grandma in Poland on your UK mobile while in Spain, that's part of your free minutes too."

    That is bizarre and it wouldn't surprise me if it's either untrue, or will be corrected later. As they are having to transport your call internationally, so it justifiably is an international call.

    What is really bizarre is the number of people online that can't get the difference between roaming and home use.

    The EU has no power to regulate costs while in your home market so it's still open to rip off by companies doing things like the 46p call to Spain (if you're on contract) while their costs are obviously below 3p (their PAYG rate).

    The EU has regulated the roaming market (only) to make it a single market, hence the UK caller being able to call Poland from Spain as a standard call.
    ====
  • phillw
    phillw Posts: 5,594 Forumite
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    edited 18 June 2017 at 11:43AM
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    d123 wrote: »
    The EU has regulated the roaming market (only) to make it a single market, hence the UK caller being able to call Poland from Spain as a standard call.

    This isn't logical & doesn't match their press release.

    http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-1590_en.htm

    "From now on, citizens who travel within the EU will be able to call, text and connect on their mobile devices at the same price as they pay at home. "

    In your example calling Poland is not going to be the same price as they pay at home. But it appears that if you dig into the detail then their press release is indeed wrong. If people start taking advantage then the costs to us will go up, or the EU will change the rule.

    You have to spend more time at home than you do roaming to qualify though, if you spend more time roaming then your provider can contact you and start charging you roaming fees again.
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