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Originally Posted by snaimon
Nonetheless, some domestic roaming IS possible AT NO EXTRA COST in Germany. It may not be universal coverage, but roaming is possible. I suspect such agreements exist in other countries, AGAIN, WITHOUT EXTRA CHARGE and with FREE INBOUND.
So, if this kind of roaming happens within a country/multiple countries, WHY CAN'T IT HAPPEN across borders betweeen foreign countries?
GREED is my quick answer.
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I must say I forgot about national roaming (perhaps because it doesn't work yet in my country
).
You're right that in European countries there are many national roamings in which either the "large-coverage" operator allows using SIMs of a "low-coverage" operator or a virtual operator (MVNO) and national roamers don't pay for incoming calls. Moreover, "low-coverage" network users usually pay the same rates for outgoing ceonnections no matter which towers they use (of course things may be different see e.g Teletopia in Norway:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/norvegia/teletopia.html) .
You ask why end-user pricing in national roaming is better than in international? My answer is not that ops are less greedy "at home" :P. I think that there may be two reasons in question. The first one is that national regulators might not allow national roaming pricing "constructed" according to usual international roaming rules. The second one, is "the force of the marke"t: who would use a SIM from an operator with rates significantly worse because of national roaming? Customers just expect to pay moreless the same rates as without national roaming, in particular they expect free incoming calls in their home countries.
As to international roaming, there's no "international regulator" to force changing the rules and customers expect (and "accept", in the sense laws of nature are "accepted" too :P) high rates.... :whistle:
No way out from this swamp. Even if the EC forces eventually to lower roaming rates, we must remember that large part of Europe is not-EU and what about the rest of the world ....?