Question about text messages within EU

LB1985

Context: So the nice people at the European Commission have over many years brought down the cost of roaming within the EU. The cost of a text message sent within the EU whilst roaming is now capped at €0.08, until 1 July 2014 when this decreases further.

Question: Given the above, how can the mobile networks justify the charges levied when sending text messages to other EU countries from the UK (i.e. when not roaming)? Quite disappointed that Virgin Media charge 30p per message, T-Mobile charge 18p, etc. Surely this is something which the EC legislation should cover too?

:mad:

matelodave

You don't have to use the service or find a provider who does it cheaper.

NFH

You make a good point. Cross-border surcharges for telecommunications within the EU are both unreasonable and unnecessary.

The good news is that the European Commission proposes in Article 21(3)(b) of this draft legislation to do exactly what you suggest, i.e. limit the cost of cross-border telecommunications charges to the prevailing EU roaming price caps.

Article 21(3)(a) goes even further in that for calls between fixed line, a cross-border phone call within the EU will have to be charged as a domestic call. This is akin to the existing rules regarding cross-border payments within the EU under Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 on cross-border payments in the Community. It seems likely that the European Commission is will eventually eliminate unjustified cross-border surcharges in all industries.

NFH

matelodave wrote: »

You don't have to use the service or find a provider who does it cheaper.

Not a helpful comment. Competition is not working in this respect because nearly all providers levy these unjustified cross-border surcharges.