"The European Commission (EC) has watered down plans to force mobile operators in Europe to slash the cost of using a mobile phone abroad. "

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/14/eu_roaming/

Just like here in the good ol' USA..... Government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

NATO.... no action, talk only.

Stan

I've said it before, governments bluster and make noise; consumer groups nip at the corporations' heals, but what they really respect is competition. When roaming rates are reduced, it will be because the consumers are better informed about the competitive alternatives (that's where we come into the game).

As I noted elswhere.... we are fighting an uphill battle. Is it 1 B GSM users worldwide... Most of whom (well Verizon customers won't have much luck) will take their native cells with them when they travel and PAY THRU THE NOSE.

How many members do we have here of the forum? What percent is that of the 1 B GSM users?

The providers just love it!

Stan

There are also some people who don't care about the money and those you will never be able to help. When I described some of my techniques for saving on communications, one friend asked, "That's not legal, is it?" He just assumed that if you weren't paying AT&T $2+ per minute, it must be illegal. :wacko:

It is sad, but possibly human nature. People are sometimes not willing to learn or change, even when it is in their own best interest.

If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.

Stan

Teltarif wrote an editorial today lame the wrong actions of the EU commission on reducing roaming rates. Lead sentence also lamented lack of competition in the telcom industry/roaming.

Personally, I think there is plenty of competition with UM, TravelSIM, 09, etc. Below my response in German. Basically I say that until the European consumer yanks his national SIM card and replaces it with another ---- thereby depriving the nationals of their roaming income, until that happens, they can't expect any changes.

http://www.teltarif.de/forum/s22030/2-1.html

I put in a plug for this site, too.

As I have written elsewhere, I think most people are just creatures of habit and not willing to try something new. Gasp, you would have to retrieve your national mobile voicemail from a landline phone using an international calling card! How intolerable!
I find that teltarif does not give international SIM cards the credit they deserve. Now it is true that the entry fee is somewhat high and the home networks are a bit odd. Nonetheless, if someone must reach you, for business or in an emergency, they will probably call you.



Stan

http://www.teltarif.de/forum/s22030/2-2.html

Here the reply from teltarif.......

Wir hatten ?ber einige dieser Firmen bereits berichtet. Leider gibt es jedoch immer wieder zahlreiche Probleme:

* Rufnummern von United Mobile sind allgemein schlecht erreichbar
* Ein deutscher Re-Seller von United Mobile ist gerade dabei, die Kunden von United Mobile auf einen anderen Anbieter zu migrieren, wohl wegen ?rger zwischen United Mobile und dem Reseller
* Ich kenne noch keinen Roaming-Discounter, der deutsche Rufnummern vergibt. Mit einer ausl?ndischen Nummer werden aber gerade Anrufe von einem beliebigen Handy zur Roaming-SIM exorbitant teuer.
* Andere Websites von Roaming-Discountern - etwa www.09.is - erwecken in mir nicht einmal genug Vertrauen, um ?ber diese ?berhaupt zu berichten. Ich habe noch nicht einmal Preise finden k?nnen.

Wenn durch geeignete regulatorische Ma?nahmen die Roaming-Discounter ?ber gesicherte Einkaufsma?nahmen bei den Netzbetreibern verf?gen, DANN werden auch f?r deutsche Verbraucher attraktive und einfach nutzbare Angebote auftauchen, und DANN wird der Markt auch stark fallende Preise sehen.


Kai

============= my translation of key parts:

BASICALLY, UM #s are hard to reach -- one German reseller is in the process of migrating customers from UM to someone else -- NO Germany #s available from any of these -- calls to IS, IOM, FL, ES from mobiles are exhorbitant and with 09 he can't even find the rates and the site is not confidence-inspiring.

When and if the roaming discounters have a guaranteed source of procuring capacity from the national providers thru proper regulatory means, only then will we see sharply falling prices and only then will there be attractive and usable offers for German consumers.

============

I am contemplating a reply to them.

Stan

What kind of brainwashing did your friend have to experience to tell such an opinion? :P
In fact, I'm a little bit shocked having read this. I experienced the similar impression when I read the stories about bean counters who prefer detailed billings over saving money :wacko:

I agree this is a stunning statement, but it is in part true.

As has been written, people and firms just write off these costs as expenses and the US taxpayer eventually foots the bill.

The bean-counters even FROWN on cost savings thru private means as they cannot VERIFY the billing. The can easily produce their corporate bills from US cell carrier to document the charges.

Then you also have the super-rich to whom a $500 monthly cell bill is just a drop in the bucket.

I am not one of them, however.

Stan

As we speak I am trying to call a cellphone using Cingular in Kyrgyzstan. All I am getting is a ringing and then two clicks, and the phone goes to dead air. I bet My boss will have a huge phone bill when he gets back. Each time I call it charges it's outrages phone charges. :thumbdown: Of course we work for the govt. so the tax payers have to foot the bill. :ranting2:

Hmm, both issues i.e bean counters' behaviour and doubts about legality of cheaper calling are not shocking to me by themselves, but because they are strongly contradicting with the image of the USA as the country of rational economic decisions and entrepreneurship ;)

I think that buying UM (or other SIMs of that kind, available from European dealers) is not any harder that buying any "Internet-based" national SIM.

As well as no French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian, nor from over other 200 countries/territories....

In fact this just means nothing more that international rates from German mobiles to call also [u]regular[/q] mobile phones in those countries are exorbitant. These are not countries in the middle of nowhere but European countries (and FL is almost a neighbour of Germany). Moreover, Estonia is in EU, IoM (from "the telecommunication point of view") too, and FL and Iceland belongs (with Norway) to "wider EU" i.e. European Economic Area. My point is that there's not only a problem of roaming rates but also a problem of international rates. National regulators and Ms Reding - please wake up! :umm:

There are rates on 09.is but I agree as to the order form page.

Does this simply mean: German (and I think not only German :P) consumers are so lazy that they prefer to overpay than to change their habits...

Admit this is slightly OT, but.....

Our wonderful(?!) US Administration, paragon of REPUBLICAN entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, has managed to turn a ~ $600 Billiom (Milliarden) budget surplus into a multi-trillion $ deficit in a matter of 5 years.

Some people might call that rational economic decision-making and entrepreneurship. I have other names for it that are not so nice.

Just like USA, champion of human rights!

I have belonged to Amnesty International since ~ 1976. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine Guantanamo and the other XXXX the so-called USA government has been doing.


:ranting2: :ranting2:

Can you EVER forgive us?

Thanks for the follow-up.

Good points. Why don't you post your questions and comments over on teltarif? THEIR comments, not mine. I have posted a small rebuttal. This was actually the second time they recently wrote on roaming and failed to mention any of these options. It is true that they report and reported about some of these. HOWEVER, you have to DO something rather than lament. Like the Amnesty motto about lighting a candle is better than cursing the darkness.

They want a perfect solution and this does not yet exist.

Another poster there mentioned that UM is in talks with E+ to launch an option with a German home #. Planned for later this year. Also SECONDED my note about the existence and usefulness of such cards.

Yackie allows US, UK and French home #s. GT-SIM allows ONE home country.

Over on telefon-treff.de a poster asked about the best German SIM for roaming while on vacation in Sweden. I answered in part to look at the international cards. Another posted also seconded my suggestion.

Bottom line IMHO.... many people, even Europeans, don't know about these options. Again, IMHO, teltarif should be doing all in its power to publicize these deals..... and they are not doing that.

As DRN suggested, until the consumer acts differently, the national operators are not going to change..... unless change is forced upon them. But it does not look as if the EU will be doing anything meaningful any time soon.

The original Teltarif editorial suggests that roaming prices are going to RISE instead of falling because of the proposed EU commission actions.

To beat the problem you mention with INTERNATIONAL RATES I have always recommended calling cards. Some have local access #s as well as toll free. These work well with BEST FRIEND or XTRA ONE tarif classes.

Lazy..... Yes, not only Germans, but others, including USA consumers.

Stan

I can't - simply I don't know German :P.

I know it - these were just my quick impressions on the subject :)


I think it may never exist. If you have 5 cents/min on-net calls in your home country, you can't have free incoming calls abroad with the same SIM unless foreign terminations rates drop below 4 cents - just a quick and dirty example :).

Nice idea, but I suppose that those UM/E+ numbers will be either billed as mobile off-net numbers for any German operator or incoming calls won't be free.

But GT-sim doesn't offer the number from that country - it's still IoM mobile....


Yes, and even if they know, they often react "Calling Liechtenstein? It's so expensive" :P



I wouldn't exclude that but I don;t want to worry in advance.

Calling cards or callbacking services are not for lazy people, I think :)

This is a happy moment... for Um, Travelsim & the other international companies :lol:

Expect an new announcement on 12th July

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/18161.php

teltarif.de has 2 stories.... both from the industy viewpoint.

FREE INBOUND is going to kill them - TMO boss says. BITKOM totally against new roaming regulations. The market place will fix it all.

.............. noise, noise, noise. Time will tell.

Stan