I see that the EU pressure on carriers has forced some lowering of cross-border roaming rates. Can't remember the costs, now, $1US a min?
U.S. carriers (Cingular and T-Mobile charge $1/min for incoming and outgoing (both local and back to U.S.) in most lst world countries.

I raise this point because some of us still have T-Mobile old (til 3 years ago) rates where incoming calls in many countries are 29?! (Outgoing varies by time and carrier within each country.) This is cheaper than roaming using these intl. cards like UM - and, obviously much more solid. It would still pay to use UM, Yackie, etc. for outgoing calls.

I know DR Newcomb here has these old rates, and I think Stu used to.

Point is, if T-M can make money off me by charging 29?, then there would be a lot of room for the carriers themselves to cut roaming rates - thus taking away the need to use someone like UM and others.

These intl. cards more than compete in 2nd and 3rd tier countries where even under the old rates it costs me a lot. Much of my use is not in lst world countries.

BTW, T-M now charges $5/min. to roam in Israel! Cingular is charging 1/2 that - $2 to $2.50/min. T-M has raised their rates from $3 just in the last few months when i last looked. At least until a few months ago, Israel was still a 29? country for me.
Yackie will be charging 24? according to their web site.

CONCLUSION: Roaming rates charged by the carriers bear no relationship to what it costs them. They obviously have graphs that figure what the customer will pay before they look for alternatives.

...mike

I think carriers are counting on human nature which seeks ease and convenience. In this case when one uses his/her national carrier outside his/her country, the price to pay is or can be quite high.

How many people will take the time to investigate roaming costs? How many cell phone users are there worldwide and how many visit this site?

QED.

Stan

I agree that maybe not many users from the U.S. roam intl. However, most of those that do would tend to be heavy users both home and abroad.

Overseas that is very common. I remember one trip taking train from Brussels to Amsterdam, it was like riding a commuter train here. People getting on and off at every stop. No border inspections. In fact the border crossings in much of Europe have virtually disappeared.
The only barriers that still remain are those put up by cel carriers. As soon as you cross a border you are paying many times your "normal" rate.

...mike

Mike:

Apprarently European rates are not going too low anytime soon. As reported on the European forum by Andy, the EU Commission seems to have backed away from its FREE INBOUND plans, at least for the moment.

Stan

I have a client in Switzerland, in the area around Lichtenstein. The people around there make sure their phones are set to manual network selection, because as you drive down the highway, you might find yourself "captured" by a FL provider and pay high roaming charges. It sometimes happens with Austrian providers, but somehow not as much.