holiday phone call charges

phil140701

just found this on yahoo

By Sarah Modlock

Here's one for any pro-Europeans out there. I usually try to remain apolitical in this column - apart from anything else, there is not enough space to go into all the crazy things that Brussels spouts. But one that is sure to hit a nerve with many is the recent let-down on mobile phone charges.

Anyone that sets foot outside the UK and wants to make or receive calls on their mobile phone pays a premium for the privilege. On average, it costs 42p a minute to receive calls while on the Continent and up to £1.20 a minute to make calls, depending on their provider, the country they are in and the operator that handles the call.

But many travellers pay as much as £1.50 a minute both to make and receive calls. This is five times the 30p average wholesale figure and it generates annual profits worth billions of pounds for the mobile networks.

You pay for u-turn

Several months ago, the European Commission got on the case and said we should not be charged to receive calls and should pay the same for making calls abroad as at home, known as the home-pricing principle. This stance provoked a powerful reaction from the mobile phone companies who threw themselves into lobbying against the changes, which they claimed would destroy competition. Even former Labour spin-doctor Peter Mandelson - now a free market EU commissioner - took time out from banning Anchor butter to say the EU was going too far.

The net result is that the industry, with a little help from Mandy, won. The EU has now set a maximum price of 11p a minute for receiving calls, 34p a minute for calling home and 23p a minute for calls within a country. Some may consider it an improvement but for cynics like me it is now just slightly less of a rip-off to use your phone abroad. So-called 'roaming' charges are estimated to account for between 15 and 20% of revenue for mobile operators.

'It is a compromise where consumers come first, but the legitimate concerns of business were taken into consideration,' says Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the Commission. Right. Even so, the industry is still not happy: '..the new proposals still amount to a straitjacket that will stifle innovation, dampen competition and harm consumers,' says Rob Conway, the chief executive of the GSM Association, a trade body which represents dozens of mobile phone operators. Vodafone's chief executive in Germany, Friedrich Joussen, said that the proposals were 'close to socialism'.

Sharon Bowles, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for competition in the European Parliament, has a rather more helpful perspective: 'The ludicrous cost of receiving or calling from a mobile phone abroad has been left to burn a hole in consumers' pockets for too long. One would hope that British holidaymakers will no longer be paying mobile phone bills larger than the cost of their holidays,' she says.

The Commission estimates that 147 million EU citizens use their mobile phones overseas each year, paying roaming fees of nearly £6 billion. It says that the new rules will save consumers about £3.4 billion a year. The proposals are scheduled to come into force by next summer, provided that they are approved by both the European Parliament and a majority of member governments. Then it will be time for customers to vote with their feet.


Beat the bills

Some mobile phone companies lowered or re-packaged their tariffs as the EU's original proposals gathered pace. But you need to check the small print of your deal to see whether you benefit. The lower prices may only available for those on special 'passport' schemes or travel 'bundles'. 'If you travel abroad a lot, some networks offer international add-ons that cost a few pounds per month. These can save you between 20 and 70% on international calls, so check with your provider,' advises Which? telecoms expert Ceri Stanaway.
She has plenty of other helpful tips: If you have a holiday home or spend a lot of time in one country, it's worth buying a pay-as-you-go Sim card there. This can be done online before you go or even when you arrive, although this may be tricky with the language barrier. You need to pay about £10 or £20 in a high street mobile phone shop to have your phone unlocked before you use the other Sim. Make sure this does not affect any mobile insurance you may have. As you will have a different number, leave a message on your usual number, telling people how they can contact you and ask your provider which foreign network is cheapest before you leave. Then select it when you arrive using the manual network selection option on your phone.
Try texting instead of calling, as this may be cheaper, and use pay phones or phone cards for local calls. Unless you need to be contactable in an emergency, divert all incoming calls to your mobile's voicemail. If the call tries to connect to the foreign network first and then diverts to voicemail, you'll still have to pay as if you received the call but if you divert straight to your UK voicemail, it bypasses this charge. Don't check your voicemail until you get home, unless you need to. If you do need to be reachable, totally deactivate your voicemail diverts - you'll be able to see any incoming calls and choose whether to answer but you won't be charged by calls diverting to voicemail.
Just think, with all the money you save you could afford to send poor old Herr Joussen of Vodafone a food parcel to keep him going.

hope this helps someone

phil140701

mmm seems no ones interested in this even tho i thought they would be oh well

redux

phil140701 wrote:

mmm seems no ones interested in this even tho i thought they would be oh well

It's interesting, but hardly a new subject. There are other articles and threads already.

To discuss it a bit: the last EU proposals were altered, so this isn't necessarily a final picture either. The mobile operators rhetoric that being prevented from making profit margins of over 90% on incoming roaming calls constitutes socialism is rather nonsensical, as are their claims that competition will improve tariffs, after they have more than doubled them in the last few years.

Local single-country SIMs, various global ones, callback and calling cards mean that cheap calls are already possible for less than the tariffs the EU are aiming at.