EU Parliament votes for ban on mobile roaming charges

digp

needs to have worldwide effect to stop the great con

bubieyehyeh

I find it deeply annoying that some network PAYG charge more to send a text in the UK than when you are roaming in Europe.

I hope they don't remove the caps when they equalise the charges, or roaming would likely increase in price for PAYG customers.

V_For_Verminator

Theoretically speaking, does this mean that networks in other countries might now be able to offer their tariffs to customers in the UK? I know the biggest e.g. Telefonica have already infiltrated but would these changes make it possible?

bigal-

It's all well and good having cheap calls when abroad but I find it more than slightly annoying that international calls from the UK to Europe aren't included in this legislation.

Just seems bizarre that if I call Europe from the UK, Virgin Mobile will charge me 90ppm, but if I actually travel to Europe the same call would cost 24ppm.

Roger1

m5rcc wrote: »

I trade so need the data and usually am away 30-40 days at a time

Very true. A case in point: Switzerland.

Switzerland is not in the EU and UK operators should not be charging VAT on calls from Switzerland to the UK.

Such calls are treated differently on different networks. Some charge the 'European' rate, some charge the non-EU rate, some charge VAT, some don't. All very confusing if you are affected.

ECR

I think this is bad news for customers who use there mobiles primarily or exclusively in the UK. I think it is inevitable that UK call charges will go up to pay for reduced roaming charges.

redux

ECR wrote: »

I think this is bad news for customers who use there mobiles primarily or exclusively in the UK. I think it is inevitable that UK call charges will go up to pay for reduced roaming charges.

That has been predicted a number of times over the years that roaming regulation has been implemented, but there is very little evidence of it having happened yet.

In fact bundles of minutes seem to be still heading towards including more and more for the same price.

By the way there have been regulatory drops in wholesale mobile termination fees, which were also wrongly predicted to push retail prices up.

System

The UK networks may reduce the retail price but their wholesale prices have decreased and usage is probably up so might not be such a big hit after all...

The networks often have overseas subsidiaries or partners:

Do you think Vodafone UK will be paying lots to use Vodafone Ireland? Your sim will be programmed to use them before other networks or even only those e.g. 3 UK only lets you roam onto 3 DK when in Denmark.

redux wrote: »

That has been predicted a number of times over the years that roaming regulation has been implemented, but there is very little evidence of it having happened yet.

In fact bundles of minutes seem to be still heading towards including more and more for the same price.

By the way there have been regulatory drops in wholesale mobile termination fees, which were also wrongly predicted to push retail prices up.

fridgeracer

i don't care, i'm still voting UKIP

buglawton

The operators have brought this on themselves by not offering fair and reasonable deals for EU travelers. Had most UK networks offered say an add-on, 'be charged like home' for £1 per day for travel from UK to anywhere in EU, I'd have been happy to pay and never felt the need for legislation.

Currently within any one EU country, operators will not even roam between themselves, so how is this going to work across borders?