MSE News: New rules could slash data roaming costs abroad

NFH

Lots of news articles have been published on this, all of which are based on the original press release from the European Commission.

coolesticeking wrote: »

YAY! Looks like calls in our home country will go up to compensate this yet again..

Why should domestic call charges go up? The cost of roaming calls is similar to the cost of domestic calls, but the price charged to the customer is without justification much higher for roaming calls. If artificially high roaming charges are currently subsidising low domestic charges (which is unlikely), then it would be justified for domestic charges go up as a result of the loss of an inappropriate subsidy.

ampletime

If the EU keeps pushing the networks around kiss goodbye to free handsets on any tariff. Don't be shocked to see the US model come in over here too, you'll be paying for incoming calls too.

I never understand when people complain about data rates when you can use WIFI and some have no idea how much it costs to run a mobile network.

NFH

ampletime wrote: »

If the EU keeps pushing the networks around kiss goodbye to free handsets on any tariff. Don't be shocked to see the US model come in over here too, you'll be paying for incoming calls too.

Can you explain the economics of that? What you are suggesting is not a logical consequence of EU regulation on roaming charges.

ampletime wrote: »

I never understand when people complain about data rates when you can use WIFI and some have no idea how much it costs to run a mobile network.

You can't use wifi unless you're lucky enough to find a wireless network within range that's free to use. With regard to how much it costs to run a mobile network, when you're roaming, your phone is using the same technology as it does on your home network. The costs of operating the foreign network are roughly the same as your home network, so why should the charges be higher?

2sides2everystory

NFH wrote: »

With regard to how much it costs to run a mobile network, when you're roaming, your phone is using the same technology as it does on your home network. The costs of operating the foreign network are roughly the same as your home network, so why should the charges be higher?

A very good point which we are all dulled to because of years of hearing the favorite excuse of the billing company that of course it is nothing to do with your home network - they are merely passing on the costs levied by the foreign network!

I think mobile phone technology is the best example of governments colluding with a cartel - the auctions (of the exclusive rights to the mobile radio frequencies they use) were even called auctions to throw us of the scent. Essentially our exchequers colluded with the mobile companies and turned them into tax collectors. The mobile companies' banks lent the government a huge lump of tax in advance and then had a free rein to charge what they liked to recoup it. The annual sop of "new rules" is laughable.

coolesticeking

Unless you are making a call to the country you are visiting, everything else is bounced back to the UK for onward forwarding. Don't people understand that sometimes this has to go over satellite links and this is not cheap - ask your operator how much a minute these costs (£6 upwards).

EU puts caps in place, cost still has to be met so these have to be reclaimed somehow so that's by putting the prices up within the UK.

Problems these days, people want everything for free or next to nothing...

You would not want to be undercharged - would you? A business is that, a business and not a charity... It would not around for long if it did not make any money.

I thought roaming rates were fine anyways, I go away to enjoy and relax.. I can have a good chin wag and catch up when I get back...

I think some people really should get a life - unless it's for business use.

redux

When I first got a mobile phone, on Orange several years ago, the rates per minute in some countries abroad were pretty similar to the rates here, at around 30 pence a minute.

In between then and now, local rates have fallen a lot, and for a while roaming rates increased.

2sides2everystory

coolesticeking wrote: »

Unless you are making a call to the country you are visiting, everything else is bounced back to the UK for onward forwarding. Don't people understand that sometimes this has to go over satellite links and this is not cheap - ask your operator how much a minute these costs (£6 upwards).

Could you give us a bit more detail? I don't understand why if I can get given a PAYG SIM at Stansted Airport which I can top up with £15 and then, apart from £15 worth of credit I can use up at normal O2 PAYG rates in the UK, I get 100 International minutes for no extra charge. Even if I only use the International minutes (at per second billing I might add) that would mean I am paying only 15p per minute via whatever means it gets to wherever I want to call?

So what's all this bouncing and satellite costs £6 a minute stuff??

Edit:- And here's another example ... http://threestore.three.co.uk/plandetails.aspx?tariffid=3396 ... 3000 international minutes for £15!

zagfles

coolesticeking wrote: »

Unless you are making a call to the country you are visiting, everything else is bounced back to the UK for onward forwarding. Don't people understand that sometimes this has to go over satellite links and this is not cheap - ask your operator how much a minute these costs (£6 upwards)

Sorry that's rubbish - the additional expense is no more than a landline international call compared to national, look at how cheap it is to call the US or even Australia (1p/min with telestunt). International routing to first world countries is dirt cheap these days. You can Skype to Australia and New Zealand (with video) for free.

NFH

coolesticeking wrote: »

Unless you are making a call to the country you are visiting, everything else is bounced back to the UK for onward forwarding. Don't people understand that sometimes this has to go over satellite links and this is not cheap - ask your operator how much a minute these costs (£6 upwards).

Not true. The only roaming calls routed via the UK are incoming calls to your UK number. All outgoing calls go straight from the visited country to the call's destination, for which the visited network subsequently bills your home network. And international calls cost peanuts anyway, unless terminating in a country with high termination charges (which excludes most of the developed world).

coolesticeking wrote: »

EU puts caps in place, cost still has to be met so these have to be reclaimed somehow so that's by putting the prices up within the UK.

How can this cause prices within the UK to increase? The capped price that the UK networks charge their customers for EU roaming covers their costs, because their wholesale costs are likewise capped, and in such a way to still allow a significant profit margin.

coolesticeking wrote: »

I thought roaming rates were fine anyways, I go away to enjoy and relax.. I can have a good chin wag and catch up when I get back...

I think some people really should get a life - unless it's for business use.

What a thoroughly naive and insular approach. Some people travel to other parts of the EU so regularly that they view their location as irrelevant to their need to continue communicating. Travel can be for plenty of reasons, such as work (i.e. different from business), business, shopping, visiting friends and relatives, and holidays. Consider also the millions of people in the EU who live in border regions (including parts of the UK) where they cross into a neighbouring country on a daily basis. Going away "to enjoy and relax" is not what it's all about and people still need to communicate without paying punitive prices for doing so.

zagfles

ampletime wrote: »

If the EU keeps pushing the networks around kiss goodbye to free handsets on any tariff.

Good. Why should other people pay for your new handset?