European Union Citizens Won't Face Mobile Roaming Fees Until At Least 2032

[SidricTheViking]

I don’t mind a debate. It’s an emotive subject though so strong opinions on both sides. I definitely do not drink the right wing coolaid. I think both sides are cheeks of the same arze! For what it’s worth, my ire is caused by my belief that the only entities benefitting from the bureaucracy are Germany and France. I just can’t imagine fighting for independence, only to give it all away again to the EU. I think Scots have a serious question to ask themselves, as well as Ireland. It’s incredibly difficult for them (you) with the politics of NI involved. I would not want to be the one trying to sort that out, shy of making NI a completely independent country, beholden to no one.

Anyway, enjoy the weekend 🍺 Fwiw, I didn’t start the Brexit debate although I should not have taken the bait 😁

An independent Northern Ireland would be a nightmare, unfortunately. Too many hotheads willing to kill to try to get their own way! Some kind of federal Union within Ireland might be plausible but still somewhat unlikely (speaking as an Irishman here). An independent Scotland might have a better chance of surviving, especially if they join the EU for access to the bigger market.

 

[jlc1978]

The thing is, the profits made due to roaming charges were just a money grab. There is not technological reason to put extra costs on it.

There are costs, however. Roaming users use bandwidth, you have to track and report usage to see if plan limits are exceeded, etc. Those costs are not near what some roaming charges are, and would be offset by users who roam on your network, so I agree it's also a money grab.

Beyond that, by having roaming charges and caps it prevents users from subscribing to a plan in a country where plans are significantly cheaper and then using them on anotehr operators network exclusively. Even the EU rules are setup to prevent that. Which is why I think teh article headline is a bit misleading. EU users won't have to pay a per day charge just to roam, but can be charged for usage above preset caps; so small amounts of raoming incur no charges but larger ones can.

There is no EU mobile data plan as such. Each country had its own rules. Here in Ireland we tend to pay significantly higher rates than many other EU countries and than the UK…sigh. Size matters indeed (our economy is simply too small to encourage price wars, etc.).

That's the problem with mobile operators being country based and not EU wide. If you contrast that to the US, despite being the same size and with more states than the EU, cell phone plans are uniform across the US, with the exception of some small virtual operators. The only variant might be local taxes. This was the result of the regional companies merging to create the big 4 (now 3) companies; as well as the growth of the two major tower operators which enabled one tower to serve multiple companies.

It wasn't originally that way, and roaming fees were high and minutes low; but as companies consolidated roaming charges went away. The sole exception might be if you have Company A and live in a place where only Company B has towers and always roam; there may be some contractual clause that says Company A can cancel your service.

 

[Juuro]

🤣🤣🤣
I mean, are there any Apple users who don’t want USB-C? I mean, I’m really tired of having different cables for my iPhone / AirPods and for my iPad / MacBook. Lightning is slower than USB-C in data transfer and it survived longer than the iPod charging by now - it’s time for an update!

I have to say I'm not sure. Of course I like to have the same cable for everything. But I don't like that politics decide what cable tech companies have to use. And in addition to that as a plug Lightning is the best plug I have seen to date. It is a solid plug where the contacts are on the outside, so there is no way to bend it in like it is still possible with USB-C wich is practically an ellipse shaped tube. That said, USB-C is of course still better than all the other crazy USB plugs before. So part of me is excited to get rid of the additional plug in the coming years, but I also wonder how we will be able to switch to something new when we reached the limitations of USB-C in a couple of years with the EU law in place.

 

[jlc1978]

I have to say I'm not sure. Of course I like to have the same cable for everything.

Except that this done necessarily mean that. Every cable should be able to deliver the minimum charging specs, but but Apple and others could customize the cable for data transfer, checking for approved cables to allow higher charging rates, etc. and still meet the law's requirements.

to something new when we reached the limitations of USB-C in a couple of years with the EU law in place.

Given the specs flexibility it may be around for a while.

 

[project_2501]

Brexiters ....

 

[SFjohn]

Why isn’t this just permanent? If you live in an EU country you should get free roaming in the EU. What’s there to figure out?

 

[KUKitch]

1) EU its the only way to force Tim to update its prehistoric lightning cable. It’s certainly more innovative than him.
2) what roaming charges have to do with companies innovation? If u want the truth, no companies care about this as i’m still waiting for separate mobile data settings for standard and roaming usage. Everytime i go abroad i have to manually disable specific apps from using mobile data, take a note of them, then enabling again when i back in my country. No one thinks to add such feature, while, i bet, its possible to do on a jb iphone or rooted (maybe even on standard) android.

Okay let’s say you live in Texas, but you need to travel to New Mexico to pick up your birth control prescription. But your phone plan only covers Texas, so you’re hit with roaming charges as soon as you use data across the border.

So how is it a bad thing for consumers that there is a regulating authority which stops this from happening?

FWIW I pay €20 a month for 12 GB of data and 150 minutes of voice. I can go to Germany or Denmark or Italy and not pay any extra roaming charges. It just works. It’s good for everyone.

I *think*, or at least I certainly hope - they were joking

 

[KUKitch]

Go have the same argument with Ukraine. EU = Russia without bombs

I guess you’d just prefer it was Britain doing the ‘dictating’… right?

 

[Lihp8270]

You’re still missing the key reasons. Being in control of laws and not being dictated to by faceless, unelected bureaucrats. Some things won’t be as good, I.e. roaming charges, unless they can also be negotiated of course. Key fundamentals, such as sovereignty, will be positive. The number of times I’ve been lectured for voting Brexit because someone has to get a pet passport….. It beggars belief that people use these insignificant criteria to decide how they are going to vote on something as hard-fought for as sovereignty.

We were in control of laws. We had the power to veto anything in the EU.

Members of the European Parliament were also elected.

 

[Heindijs]

4G coverage can be a bit of a mess with some networks. If you’re on a carrier which uses the T-Mobile network, you’re generally fine, but using Vodafone has never been pleasant for example. My dad used to use Vodafone and whenever we’d be in Germany, he wouldn’t have a lot of signal and rarely speeds above 2g. While I was using a T-Mobile based network and I’d have 4g without issues.
This just is one of those issues I’d like to see resolved. Even using T-Mobile, I sill have towns in Germany were I don’t get 4G.

But I am glad there have been no roaming charges anymore. Used to be really annoying when I couldn’t send a WhatsApp message asking where one of my family members has wandered off to!

 

[ForkHandles]

4G coverage can be a bit of a mess with some networks. If you’re on a carrier which uses the T-Mobile network, you’re generally fine, but using Vodafone has never been pleasant for example. My dad used to use Vodafone and whenever we’d be in Germany, he wouldn’t have a lot of signal and rarely speeds above 2g. While I was using a T-Mobile based network and I’d have 4g without issues.
This just is one of those issues I’d like to see resolved. Even using T-Mobile, I sill have towns in Germany were I don’t get 4G.

But I am glad there have been no roaming charges anymore. Used to be really annoying when I couldn’t send a WhatsApp message asking where one of my family members has wandered off to!

The internet and mobile data are quickly becoming necessities in life.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU insisted on tower sharing for all mobiles in the medium future.

It is a ridiculous situation in 2022, certainly in the uk, that you still can’t make a phone call in particular areas with particular providers, but you can with others!

 

[jlc1978]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU insisted on tower sharing for all mobiles in the medium future.

The EU tower industry seems to finally be following the American one where providers sell their towers to a tower company, who then rents space to any provider who wants to hang an antenna on a tower. This results in much higher colocation and would pretty much eliminate the need for mandates.

Mandating access opens up questions of what is a fair price for access to the site and backhaul, who is responsible for maintenance, interference, what happens if a company decides to move or retire a tower, etc.

 

[ds2000]

Thanks Brexit

 

[MLVC]

In what way is Britain less democratic than the EU?

The comment is perfectly reasonable. European power is held tightly by the Commission, an unelected body comprised mostly of the ex-Ministers of Europe. Ironically it’s anti democratic since you usually need to lose an election in your home country in order to ascend to it.

The commission is the only body capable of proposing new legislation, the elected Parliament cannot propose legislation. No wonder the old joke “If the EU applied to join itself it would be turned down for not meeting the criteria”.

Good riddance from my point of view. For better or for worse. Laws need to be made as locally as possible to the people that they affect.

Source for my claims: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/25/the-european-commission

The European Commission is appointed by the elected head of states and has to be approved by the elected European Parliament. European laws have to be approved by the elected parliaments of the member states. Really, how do you not know this in 2022??

 

[nick9191]

The European Commission is appointed by the elected head of states and has to be approved by the elected European Parliament. European laws have to be approved by the elected parliaments of the member states. Really, how do you not know this in 2022??

I did know this in 2022? Can you point to where my post contradicts yours or are you just making a ridiculous strawman?

Let me ask you this, which other developed democratic countries do not allow their elected representatives to introduce legislation?

 

[project_2501]

I did know this in 2022? Can you point to where my post contradicts yours or are you just making a ridiculous strawman?

Let me ask you this, which other developed democratic countries do not allow their elected representatives to introduce legislation?

modern developed democracies very commonly agree to join a club and abide by the rules of that club because they know the benefits are worth it.

do keep up.