UK & Europe treated as seperate regions!

Moonstruck_2

Orange insist that when I am in Europe (across the channel) I am 'roaming' and charge accordingly. This seems to me to be against the spirit (and maybe the law itself) of EU interior-market principles. Why am I as a UK citizen disadvantaged over my Dutch friend. He isnt 'roaming' when he moves between France, NL and Belgium for example. Yes, he would be if he came to the UK, but that is far less likely than me going to mainland Europe (I may go to any one of 24 countries, so the flow isnt equal). The Channel itself is arbitrary, there isnt an additional Ferry cost for transporting the signal over 22m of water! I dont profess to be a European lawyer, but I think this may be illegal. One market etc?

gjchester

Moonstruck wrote: »

Why am I as a UK citizen disadvantaged over my Dutch friend. He isnt 'roaming' when he moves between France, NL and Belgium for example.

Actually I think you'll find as far as the networks are concerned he is and will be charged a higher rate than his home network.

They may have a bolt on that gives them so many international minutes in their bill though.

PeteMc

When I lived in France (and on Orange France) I was charged roaming rates when in another European country.

nomoneytoday

Is it the school holidays already?

gjchester

Actually there can be times when you could be in Germany or Belgium and still not be roaming if your close enough to the border to Holland that the phone remains on its home network, it all depends what signal is the strongest.

IIRC there was somewhere in Kent where this happened in reverse, the French signal was stronget than the British signal due to the positions of the masts and the local cliffs so you could roam onto the french network whilst still in the UK, (and get charged the more expensive roaming charge)

redux

Moonstruck wrote: »

Orange insist that when I am in Europe (across the channel) I am 'roaming' and charge accordingly. This seems to me to be against the spirit (and maybe the law itself) of EU interior-market principles. Why am I as a UK citizen disadvantaged over my Dutch friend. He isnt 'roaming' when he moves between France, NL and Belgium for example. Yes, he would be if he came to the UK, but that is far less likely than me going to mainland Europe (I may go to any one of 24 countries, so the flow isnt equal). The Channel itself is arbitrary, there isnt an additional Ferry cost for transporting the signal over 22m of water! I dont profess to be a European lawyer, but I think this may be illegal. One market etc?

I think you'll find that mobile phones have been in use for over 20 years, and use in another country than one's own has always been referred to as roaming, and charged differently.

This applies to UK customers, to European customers, and to customers of all countries in the world that have mobile networks with arrangements for roaming.

Some networks have optional add-ons for cheaper roaming, and the EU mandates maximum allowable charges within the EU, but these are still roaming tariffs as one is not on one's home network.

In other words, most of your assertions and suppositions are inaccurate. In particular, the pan-European non-roaming arrangement you describe for your Dutch friend simply does not exist, for Dutch or any other European users.