Speak for yourself.When can we, here in the States, join the European Union? Great Britain just quit so that means there is an empty seat at the table waiting to be filled.
Speak for yourself.When can we, here in the States, join the European Union? Great Britain just quit so that means there is an empty seat at the table waiting to be filled.
I can see this working well for EU countries but can fully understand why American carriers still charge insane fees. Although, I travel a lot as a Verizon Wireless customer and have seen a great drop in what they charge me to roam. Most recently:
$5 a day flat rate in Bermuda w/ my data allowance just being what it is normally (4GB a month)
$2 a day in Canada every 24 hours same rules apply.
Back in the day, I'd have to pay $10 for 50 megabytes or something like that. It was ridiculous.
Once Brexit happens, I wonder if this Home Roaming will still work for the brits.Im with Three UK and they already do this to certain countries (growing list) i went to Prague in September, and upon arrival got my welcome text and calls, texts and data came out of my allowance which includes totally unlimited data. I was still able to teher my macbook and that came from the allowance as well, so no nasty surprises, all for only £15 a month.
I think he was referring to it being the functional equivalent, in terms of how cell phone plans work.
The EU covers a lot more countries than the US, Mexico and Canada (not necessarily geographically)For Americans who are complaining, we already have this in the US, it's the same as walking between states and using your phone normally...and in some cases with some carriers, that include Canada and Mexico as well.
It shouldn't be affected, the roaming offered by Three covers a lot of countries which are not in the EU.Once Brexit happens, I wonder if this Home Roaming will still work for the brits.
Sorry but where does this information come from. Contracts in Europe includes a set amount of data and above that you are charged. You are much more likely to get a contract with unlimited text than unlimited data. A few carriers offer contracts with unlimited data but they are throttled.Still don't understand how American carriers do the ass-backwards move of charging for data with unlimited texts, while every other country in the world does practically unlimited data and charges per text. Who's correct?
Again, I think the person who made the point is talking about the amount of GEOGRAPHIC AREA COVERED, not the actual number of countries/states/cities/whatever...The EU covers a lot more countries than the US, Mexico and Canada (not necessarily geographically)
Then people in the UK can switch to Three as others have said, for £18/month.Once Brexit happens, I wonder if this Home Roaming will still work for the brits.
I'm with Three too and have used this (it's great!) - but I thought tethering was excluded...?
Still don't understand how American carriers do the ass-backwards move of charging for data with unlimited texts, while every other country in the world does practically unlimited data and charges per text. Who's correct?
Meanwhile the Trump administration is trying to figure out how to best maximize profits for the telecoms while hurting customers.
European Commission members met on Wednesday to discuss draft rules intended to eliminate roaming charges in the European Union as of June 15, 2017.
The Commission said it is determined to put an end to roaming charges commonly billed by carriers when a customer calls, sends messages, or uses data on their mobile device while abroad in the European Union, outside of their primary country of residence, subject to proportionate checks for abusive usage.
European regulators have proposed a "Roam like at Home" solution that would allow travelers to call, text, and browse the web on their mobile devices when abroad in the European Union for no extra charge than the price they pay at home. It is not intended to be used for permanent roaming.
"Roam like at Home" is aimed at people who travel in the European Union for work or leisure. "They spend more time at home than they do abroad, and they make most of their calls, texts and use data in their home country," the Commission explained.The latest draft further clarifies consumer rights, such as ensuring that customers abusing a carrier's roaming policy are not subject to over-intrusive background checks and establishing a minimum alert period of 14 days before roaming charges can be imposed on customers who exceed fair usage.
The revised rules also introduce safeguards to ensure carriers remain competitive. Customers can be asked to prove they live or have "stable links" to a specific country before "Roam like at Home" is included in their contract, while those roaming excessively can be sent a warning message and/or small roaming charge.The proposed surcharges for customers who exceed fair usage are EUR0.04/minute per call, EUR0.01 per SMS, and EUR0.0085 per MB of data usage.
The draft legislation has now been sent to representatives for each European Union member state, who will meet on December 12 to vote on the text. Afterwards, the European Commission will be able to adopt the rules.
EU member states include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
In September, the Commission said the European government agreed to its proposal to end roaming charges in Europe. This week, the Commission said it will be steadfast to ensure an agreement is reached as soon as possible.
Article Link: European Union Moves Forward With Plans to Eliminate Roaming Charges Next Year
Example: with his EUR70 per month contract, Tim living in Netherlands gets unlimited calls, texts and data for his smartphone. When he travels abroad on holidays, he will have unlimited calls and text. For data, he will get twice the equivalent of EUR70 worth of data at the wholesale roaming data price cap, i.e. 0.85 cent/MB according to the Commission wholesale proposal, meaning more than 16 GB in this case. While roaming, he will get twice the volume he has paid for.
€0.0085 per MB of data usage" Ahem. Data is measured in GB or parts thereof so that would be €8.50 per 1GB - not bad. Things have improved. Less than six years ago companies were regularly charging "$0.02 per kilobyte" for roaming or for exceeding cap. That, believe it or not, is $20,000- per GB! People were coming home from holidays to enormous bills.
Then it was "reduced" to like $1,500- per GB etc but still quoted in miniscule terms to mislead people. Kid you not.
Won't happen. Ever. At best one in 20 people would think this is even a good idea.
For the most part, the EU is in the midst of collapsing. What started out as a good idea with a common currency and common market with free travel and exchange of goods, products and services has turned into an over-regulated nightmare with the EC making up rules and regulations as they go. Brexit was just first step in its collapse. Italeave will be next and the dominoes will all fall.
Lol UK. Not for long!
EDIT: In all seriousness - is meddling in private business like this really a good idea?
I know, I know, I am a big, dumb, free market, capitalist American.
Trouble is in my experience three are *&($%^It shouldn't be affected, the roaming offered by Three covers a lot of countries which are not in the EU.
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Still don't understand how American carriers do the ass-backwards move of charging for data with unlimited texts, while every other country in the world does practically unlimited data and charges per text. Who's correct?
That sounds correct, at least for national plans.I don't understand the data aspect of it. At https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/roaming-tariffs they say that it's going to be "roam like at home". In this article they calculate contract price, data price and double it. What if I have a really good deal with high data cap and low price? Then it's not "roam like at home"
For national packages, the Commission proposes specific solutions to protect consumers from possible domestic price increases:
For pre-paid metered contracts: when you go abroad, you can Roam like at Home up the amount of credit remaining for that month. For data, you can use a volume equivalent to the value of your remaining monthly credit at the wholesale roaming data price cap (currently being debated between the European Parliament and Council).
For the most competitive contracts that offer data at very low domestic prices, below the wholesale cap: when you go abroad you will continue to enjoy your full allowance of calls and texts. For data, you will have twice the volume of data equivalent to the value of your monthly contract in wholesale roaming data price caps.
This. I didn't care about the government aspect. I cared how is similar in functionality.I think he was referring to it being the functional equivalent, in terms of how cell phone plans work.
That sounds correct, at least for national plans.
The example they give is Tom in Finland with the €70 unlimited phone/text/data plan.
When he travels, the value of his €70/month plan (at .€085/MB) is 8235 MB of data, and he gets double that, so 16,470 MB of data to roam with every month.
Not a horrible deal, but it's not "unlimited data" like at home.