EU may end all roaming charges
 

EU to end mobile roaming charges next year - Telegraph

OK this part is very encouraging to hear for consumers:

But then this goal of consolidating carriers makes you worry whether prices will decline:

Of course prices charged by operators across the EU vary greatly. It would be great if carriers like TIM and Wind, which offer great prices for data and good networks, were among the survivors of this carrier consolidation.

But if the operators which emerge out of this consolidation are Vodaphone, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and other similarly higher-priced carriers, then what?

I used a 25-Euro 10 GB package from TIM during a 2-week trip in Italy last week. No longer unlimited but with that much data, I often used it in hotels because the speeds were better and the hotels were blocking certain network services. For instance, I couldn't use VPN at one hotel but I could use it with TIM.

This certainly good news for those that live and travel within the EU. No need to try to hunts down an international sim or even a local sim, especially on very short trips.

Based on the European Commission's plans and comments, it is possible that it will cost the same to make a call to a mobile or fixed line anywhere within the EU; O2 Slovakia already does this. It would be nice if the country of one's mobile number no longer has any financial significance and becomes merely the personal choice of the user, i.e. with which country they want to associate themselves. This would be akin to North America whereby consumers choose mobile numbers solely based on the area code with which they want to be associated.

Assuming that it will cost the same to use a SIM card throughout the EU, it will be particularly attractive to have a prepaid SIM card issued in the UK:

• No requirement to top up to keep SIM cards active; one balance deduction every six months suffices.
• All the major international companies are already main networks in the UK - Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three.
• No VAT on roaming outside the EU VAT area. The UK opted to exempt non-EU roaming from UK VAT under Article 9(3)(a) of Council Directive 77/388 ("the Sixth VAT Directive") so that it could charge UK VAT to visitors from outside the EU VAT area who are roaming in the UK. This was enacted under Article 19 of the Value Added Tax (Place of Supply of Services) Order 1992.

It's about time, even though the costs for roaming have been brought down it's still insane how much they are allowed to sell it for.

Use of internet should be everyone's right by now.

This is one step towards less expensive roaming charges:

Scopri Vodafone Smart Passport

(I don't mean the offer itself, but I refer to the grey rectangle titled "NovitÃ*")

Vodafone UK has an even simpler version of this. You pay £3/day when you're roaming, and all your usage is charged as if you were in the UK, e.g. from your inclusive allowances. All that will happen for Vodafone customers when the EU imposes its ban on roaming charges is that the £3/day charge will disappear.

I hope so... There's also a rumour about an European telephone numbering plan. I wonder how they'll manage the diversity of prefixes and length of numbers throughout Europe...

Would they have a +4 code for the whole of the EEA? They couldn't use +3 because there are several non-EEA European countries with +3 country codes.

See List of country calling codes - Wikipedia

Long time ago the EU proposed this: Telephone numbers in the European Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But it's an awful proposal. Let's see what Neelie Kroes proposes in September :D

The big difference with the US is that for the most part the cell phone companies are national - a California user travelling 2500 miles to New York is still utilizing the same carrier.

Vodafone in Europe seems to be the closest to this - the various Vodafones in various European countries do seem to have the best roaming plans for Europe.

Another issue could be the ID laws in the various EU countries could be undercut by this. Right now, in Italy one needs to show a passport and tax ID to get a SIM. In Spain, one needs to show one's passport. There are probably other examples, and the trend seems to be towards more ID requirments.

Then you have the UK where you can buy a SIM card and never show any ID to anyone. One can buy a SIM in the UK an use it in Italy, but there are roaming charges so this is not a practical solution for an Italian who doesn't want to show ID to obtain a SIM. However, if anyone can buy a SIM in the UK and use it in Italy with no roaming charges at all, then Italy's ID system is undercut - just buy a UK SIM off of ebay, and you can use it in Italy with no roaming charges.