[snidely]

I haven't really kept up. It has appeared that in the last few years the "authorities" had made carriers greatly reduce roaming costs.
I would assume, at some point, roaming charges would be eliminated.
Anyway, is there any reason for someone from Italy to have an intl. SIM if he is just traveling to France and Germany?
Will roaming eventually be eliminated within the EU and, maybe, the UK?

When cellular first came into being in the U.S. - you would pay 45 cents/min (daytime) and pay up to $2/day when you connected to a non-local carrier plus $1/min or more.

You would pay roaming just to use your Boston cell in NYC (200 miles) or your San Francisco cell in LA (400 miles). Of course you paid long distance when calling outside your local area. (Can't remember rates.)

Now (the last several years), there are no roaming charges to use your phone anywhere within the U.S. no LD charges to call any U.S. number. Unlimited voice calling (in and out) is $50-$60/mo. (5G of data will add $25 or $30). Of course, in the U.S. there is no premium charged to call a cell.
You can call Canadian numbers for free making use of Google Voice - but roaming in Canada is expensive.

My Point - Wouldn't it be logical that the entity known as the EU, at some point, disallow the charging for roaming among member countries? In the U.S. almost all the independent carriers have merged into the 4 or 5 big ones. (The U.S. government is slowly eliminating competition by allowing the big carriers to merge. (4 years ago, ATT/Cingular, later this year, ATT/T-Mobile.) The few small carriers left all have roaming agreements w. all the others, big and small.

Bottom line - Won't the market for intl. cards be greatly diminished in he near future?

...mike