MSE News: Tesco Mobile customers can avoid roaming rates in Europe this summer

OldBeanz

redux wrote: »

Leave out the UKIP propaganda, or unwitting imitations of it, please.

Until the regulators took this action, spread over several years of networks struggling and kicking in opposition, call rates while roaming were much higher, sometimes over £1 a minute against a wholesale cost of just a few pence (then; now it's less), thus if there could be said to be a notional cross-subsidy, it was flowing towards home users.

Very few networks have declared that they put up home rates to allow for this being about to happen. I'm only aware of one so far, and some might view its descriptions with a little cynicism.

And there seem to be a steady stream of new MVNO providers, some surviving some not, so I don't quite understand your last point.

The single European market happened in 1992. It's about time the mobile networks caught up.

Why do you think it is UKIP propaganda? And why am I not entitled to my opinion? GiffGaff for one have just upped their phone rates and it is obvious that providing a European service rather than UK service is going to be more costly to start up.
It is you that is decrying the EU by pointing out the length of time it takes to do anything even if some think it is a costly mistake.

redux

OldBeanz wrote: »

Why do you think it is UKIP propaganda? And why am I not entitled to my opinion? GiffGaff for one have just upped their phone rates and it is obvious that providing a European service rather than UK service is going to be more costly to start up.
It is you that is decrying the EU by pointing out the length of time it takes to do anything even if some think it is a costly mistake.

Your last sentence suggests that perhaps you are misunderstanding what I said. The slowness of the process is due to the recalcitrance of the networks, not the politicians and regulators.

giffgaff is the only company I'm aware of so far that claims to be increasing its home prices because of the upcoming roaming rates. Perhaps not all of their customers are convinced.

Elsewhere, in this country and others like Germany or Netherlands, some other networks are already abolishing extra roaming cost ahead of next year's deadline for this part. Without putting up home prices. See Tesco, the subject of this thread.

How can it be a costly mistake to reduce prices? Why would the people who do not travel abroad argue for things to go back to before, when roaming was vastly overcharged? Sorry, but that might be where a small amount of selfishness is being shown.

redux

d123 wrote: »

It's quite easy to see what the networks would like to charge, just look at the charges for countries bordering the EU in Europe.

For example Macedonia
EE
£1.50 a minute to make or receive a call and 50p per text message

Three
£1.40 a minute to make or receive a call, 35p per text and £6 per MB :eek:

Vodafone
£1.65 a minute to call, £1.30 to receive, 35p + home rate to text and £3 per MB

O2
£1.50 a minute to call, £1.25 to receive, 40p to text and another extortionate £6 per MB :eek:

O2 will graciously give you another 200MB allowance for £120!!!

Robbing barstewards.

It's no wonder the EU had to legislate them to bring in cheap rates.

Indeed.

I went to Poland in 2003.

As part of Orange's measures to welcome the new EU entrants, they increased the rate for outgoing calls in Poland from 51 to 110 then 130 pence a minute.

They didn't even inform me of the 110, and it was a matter of luck that I didn't use it much as I'd obtained a Polish SIM.

When I asked later about the lack of notice of this, they said that people with monthly statements up to a certain date in the month had it on one statement, and people after another date in the month had it on the next month statement. There was a gap!

Orange also increased prices in countries already in the EU. In say Belgium rates went up to 70 pence a minute. Oddly this was still fairly competitive against O2 and Vodafone.

When I first joined Orange, rates abroad were typically 30 to 40 pence a minute while abroad. Rather high, but little higher than the home rate then of 30 pence a minute. In some places, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, rates were in single figures.

Home rates then went dramatically down, and roaming rates up. I really can't see what the opponents of lower roaming rates are whingeing about.

jem16

So what happens outwith this time period?

Due to travel to Europe soon so part of my trip will be outwith the period and the last few days will be within it.

Looking at the countries concerned, it seems that it will be 4ppm to make a call, free to receive and 1p per text. I assume these rates were from 30th April as it was yesterday I looked.

Data is 0.04p per meg- always the tricky one as I have no idea how much data would be used for checking emails and sending some whatsapp texts. Perhaps general surfing.

grumbler

ppm:

• Pages per minute, a measurement of printing speed
• Parts per million, a way of quantifying small concentrations, usually mass
• pixels per meter, analogue of dots per inch for displays
• Points per minute, commonly used in video games to quantify points earned per minute
• Temperature coefficient, expressed as ppm/K or ppm/C meaning "parts per million per kelvin" or "...per degree Celsius" respectively

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPM

"0.04p per meg" is extremely cheap as it's just 40p/GB :think:

jem16

grumbler wrote: »

ppm:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPM

ppm = pence per minute

"0.04p per meg" is extremely cheap as it's just 40p/GB :think:

Sorry really meant to say £0.04 per MB. Wish it was 0.04p.

Anyway what does that equate to in actual usage?