I think almost every carrier in the EU is against Neelie :p But in my last post I was referring to this:

Decision taken by MEPs, and roaming fees will be abolished by 2016 (December 15th 2015)

Also they will protect what is referred to a net neutrality, there can be no systems of charging some people extra for preferential access to the internet, or blocking data access to competing products such as VoIP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26866966

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meps-vote-s...y-2015-1443237

I'm going a bit off-topic, but I stayed in a hotel last week where the hotel's internet provider had blocked SIP and all non-standard ports. When I told the hotel, they quickly got me another login where all ports were open. I wonder whether the regulations will apply to hotels as well?

I found the draft legislation, Article 37 of this draft regulation (see pages 61 to 66), which comprises many amendments to the well known Regulation (EU) No 531/2012. The most notable points I've spotted are:

• Home networks will have to apply to all their respective retail packages the applicable domestic service rate to both domestic services and regulated roaming services throughout the EEA as if the regulated roaming services were consumed on the home network and ensure that this is complied with when roaming on at least one network in each EEA country. For example O2 UK will apply this in Spain only when roaming on Movistar, because it is also owned by Telefonica. The principle of "virtual extension of the home network coverage" is mentioned.
• Networks can apply fair usage policies to roaming at domestic prices. Three UK already does this for example.
• Home networks don't have to agree bilateral agreements for roaming at domestic prices in all EEA countries, but in only 17 member states representing 70% of the population of the EEA. This is probably means that roaming charges in some small parts of the EU like Gibraltar will not improve.
• Incoming calls will be free from 1st July 2014.

I might have missed some significant points, so I hope others will add more observations below.

So do bills passed by the EU Parliament generally get approved by the member nations?

Is the near-unanimous vote an indication of the support this measure has in the EU countries or are the MEPs way out there?

It would seem the big mobile carriers would try to resist. IIRC the roaming fees they collect are not an insignificant portion or their revenues or profits.


I paid 28 Euros for Orange's Lets Go SIM and a 2 GB top up in France. I paid similar amounts for TIM but got 5 or 10 GB allotment over a month.

The other carriers in Italy have equally or more competitive pricing on their mobile data bundles. So why wouldn't they start selling their SIMs outside of Italy? Or market their lower prices to spur more sales?

It's hard to believe carriers in markets with less competitive pricing would accept this change without fighting against it.

Yeah I've run into that too.

But a more common problem, besides the cumbersome login procedures, is that the speeds are horrible, sometimes under 1 Mbps down, maybe .15 Mbps up.

If you can use the lower-priced mobile data bundles across the EU, more people may just not bother with Hotel Wifi.

I was chatting to a friendly UK dealer last week - he says that, when imposed free roaming comes in, the European networks will copy the US (AT&T/T-Mobile?) flat-rate global roaming deal and offer EDGE (GPRS) free - then ask for a per-gigabyte payment for 3G and 4G services...

Seems a bit sharp practice, but atypical of the cellcos IMHO.

I don't think that would comply with the legislation, which obliges the networks to charge the same for intra-EEA roaming as they charge for domestic usage. For example, if they charge €10 for 1GB of 4G data domestically, then they must charge the same when roaming on 4G within the EEA.

TMoibile doesn't offer edge. It throttles 3G at 128k up and down. People can still run google Maps, stream music or do VOIP over 3G. Not everything at once, but it works.

Ah yes, I remember now. Doing that on a pan-European basis would make sense, with customers expected to pay extra for unthrottled access.

In fact, I wouldn't put it past the cellcos to introduce some form of throttling on their in-country services and then surcharge for full whack 3G and 4G access...

+Steve :)