Quote:
Originally Posted by dg7feq
The main providers in germany charge you the roaming fee of the foreign network +25%. Service providers and virtual operators sometimes charge a different surcharge.
Chris
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If that is TRUE, I see from
http://www.t-mobile.de/xtraroaming/0...3397-_,00.html
that the rate in the US is 1,49 €/Minute. That means the fee (before the +25%) to roam within US (and it could be on T-MO US!?) is ~ 1,19 €/Minute or $1.80 US per minute (using 1.5 $ / 1 €).
We have said that the EU national carrier is going to pay for the "dirt cheap" call forward to the US (5 US cents per minute, my estimate).
What is contained in the roaming fee within US?
1. The US carrier is going to ACCEPT the inbound call (as any other inbound call - estimated COST without profit under 10 US cents per minute - TMO US is taking that from its gold rewards prepaid customer AND MAKING A PROFIT).
2. The US carrier is then going to call back to the national EU caller. Now, at one time TMO had international rates of 49 US cents FROM and possibly TO on its network with many EU countries; those rates are now GRANDFATHERED and no longer available to new customers. DRN has this favorable old rate - please correct me if I am wrong. I bet TMO US is still making a bundle at that price. I would guess the COST without profit to TMO for a call US to DE is < 5 cents landline and < 23 cents mobile. Calling card companies are charging such rates to normal customers AND STILL MAKING PROFITS.
So we have 10 cents to receive and 5 - 23 cents to transmit back. A total of 15 - 33 cents of "costs" which include some profit margin.
I can only conclude that roaming rates while in US are akin to "highway robbery."
Stan