European Union Moves Forward With Plans to Eliminate Roaming Charges Next Year

[rom3o]

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?

Idk about the other EU states but here in Germany it's the same situation: Unlimited calls and texts with capped 'flatrates' for data (usually 1/3/6 GB with 10/20/30 GB being available at ridiculous price points).

The UK mobile operators have said that if/when this comes in as law that they will put up their call plan charges to cover their losses. The EU causes bigger problems by poking their noses in everywhere.

As someone mentioned before, there might not be any losses since the carriers don't actually charge each other on a per-use model.

Btw: All major German carriers already implemented free EU roaming during the last two years in anticipation of this regulation.

 

[SirRahikkala]

This is a double-edged sword. I have unlimited 150Mbit 4G (including 600Mt EU roaming data), 1200 calls, 1200 sms for 24,90€. Now the operators have been talking that if the roaming comes free for all, they cannot sustain those unlimited data plans. Basically that free 600Mt roaming while traveling is quite enough for checking the map or tripadvisor, reading emails and such UNTIL you get to wi-fi hotspot. Of course for business use or longer trips it's not enough but hey, it's still free.

 

[Reason077]

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.

Pedantic correction: The United Kingdom just quit. But thankfully, quitting takes a while, so hopefully these roaming rules will land well before we leave

Even after the UK leaves the EU, it's likely that they'll still participate in the single market to some extent. So rules like this will continue to apply, just like they do currently for Switzerland and Norway.

 

[wschutz]

Even after the UK leaves the EU, it's likely that they'll still participate in the single market to some extent. So rules like this will continue to apply, just like they do currently for Switzerland and Norway.

Well... they will participate in all or nothing. The EU has said so... UK is in no position to negotiate anything, it is the EU deciding and UK can take it as it is (pretty a Norwegian-like deal which Norway actually recommends UK not to take, and instead remain in the EU, because in the end they would have to do what the EU says without having any saying into it) or survive on its own which is pretty much suicide.

 

[ksnell]

The US government "meddles" in business quite a bit. Do you think US companies are unregulated?

But you obviously don't have Comcast, or some other monopoly provider. Having a monopoly on a person's phone service is just as bad and leads to the exact same abuses.

The real question is: what makes you think business, or the market, is always right?

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

You should check my other posts. I do feel like America is over-regulated as well, but I certainly do not think it is as bad as in Europe.

 

[Zandery]

But you obviously don't have Comcast, or some other monopoly provider. Having a monopoly on a person's phone service is just as bad and leads to the exact same abuses.

We have a British equivalent of Comcast called BT. They control the largest mobile network, EE, they held (until recently) the broadband network management company Open Reach, they offer mobile, home phone, internet and TV packages and are the largest media/technology company in the UK I believe, they're a monopoly that was approved by the government.

A smaller network wanted to merge with another smaller network to create a network half the size of BT but enable them to keep current technology wise and that wasn't approved, go figure.

 

[Compote]

France.
Free Mobile.
20€ / month (down to 16 if you subscribe to broadband with them)
Unlimited texts, voice and data.
50 Gigs of faire use LTE per month - still works beyond that point at no additional charge. Unlimited.
FREE ROAMING on everything everywhere I've been in EU so far, including the remote Canary Islands.
Free, unlimited tethering.
You're free to leave the carrier ANYTIME you want, should you find a better offer.
No signal ? That seldom happens, but if you're in range of a Free Wifi home network (any Free user), you get free WiFi on your phone, no need to login, and that can be tethered for free to your computer.

There's also a 2€/0€ plan, should you not use your phone too much. But it comes at a higher cost to even use it occasionally.

When I go abroad, I let my "foreign" friends thether to my phone, not the other way around.
You don't always need regulations, but sometimes it helps. Like, if you're not French and not smart enough to have a Free Mobile subscription.

This... Looks a lot like an advert. Sorry. It's not.

 

[saturn88]

If you have 15GB plan, ATT no longer charges for roaming in Canada and Mexico for both voice & data, so you can be on a beach browsing your mobile device. Total covered geographical area more than twice larger than EU.

 

[beeftrader]

If you have 15GB plan, ATT no longer charges for roaming in Canada and Mexico for both voice & data, so you can be on a beach browsing your mobile device. Total covered geographical area more than twice larger than EU.

It's not about geographical area, but the infrastructure within different countries. Since you are part of the Americas, this deal is the equivalent of you having double your allowance while you travel in 28 of the 55 countries that sit in the Americas. Europeans travel *a lot* more than Canadians/Americans/Mexicans do between these 28 countries (a lot of it being business-related too).

 

[Reason077]

Well... they will participate in all or nothing. The EU has said so... UK is in no position to negotiate anything

That's not really true. Both sides would be losers if the UK and EU failed to reach some sort of free-trade deal, so the UK does have some negotiating power.

The EU actually exports more to the UK than vice-versa (including a lot of high value items, like German cars), so it could be argued that the EU actually has more to lose than the UK does. Also, the UK is a large net contributor to the EU budget. I suspect that the UK may end up continuing to pay fees to the EU in order to retain access/membership to the common market.

In any case, the formal negotiating process has yet to begin. Neither side has any official declared position at this stage.
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We have a British equivalent of Comcast called BT. They control the largest mobile network, EE, they held (until recently) the broadband network management company Open Reach, they offer mobile, home phone, internet and TV packages and are the largest media/technology company in the UK I believe, they're a monopoly that was approved by the government.

BT have a lot of market power, but they're hardly a monopoly. There's plenty of different broadband providers you can use (albeit riding on OpenReach's physical network) who offer similar broadband/TV/mobile packages. There's also providers like Virgin Media that have their own, completely separate infrastructure.

This is nothing like the situation in some regions of the US where you really have only one choice for who you get your broadband and TV from!

A smaller network wanted to merge with another smaller network to create a network half the size of BT but enable them to keep current technology wise and that wasn't approved, go figure.

Are you talking about O2/Three? Thats quite a different situation. Mobile networks are allowed to share physical infrastructure (O2 and Vodafone already do, for their 4G networks, and I believe EE and Three share some infrastructure too) but further consolidation at the business level would harm competition, meaning higher prices for consumers.