EU may end all roaming charges

[wco81]

So another milestone, not necessarily the last, for EU-wide free roaming.

EU agrees on wholesale roaming charges on Feb 1, 2017:

'Roam like at home'

"This decision is the final step in a process that started 10 years ago," said Dr Emmanuel Mallia, the Maltese Minister for Competitiveness and Digital, Maritime and Services Economy.

"From next summer, wherever they are travelling in Europe, citizens will be able to make calls, send texts, surf and stay connected. Roam like at home is now a reality."

Under the agreement, the wholesale charge for data will drop from the current cap of 50 euros (£43) per gigabyte (gb) to 7.7 euros (£6.60) per gb on 15 June.

The price will drop again on 1 January every year until January 2022 when it will be 2.5 euros (£2) per gb.

Calls will fall from 0.05 euros (4p) per minute to 0.032 euros (3p) on 15 June, and text messages will go down from 0.02 euros (2p) to 0.01 euros (1p) per message.

The charges will be reviewed every two years and new caps proposed if necessary. The first report is due out at the end of 2019.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38825154

But it still has to be voted on by the EU Parliament and member states.

Yet they're talking about RLAH from June 15, 2017 on. So less than 3 months away I didn't see any other updates since Feb 1 when this agreement on wholesale prices was announced.

All these bodies are going to ratify it and then the carriers are going to be able to do RLAH marketing in less than 3 months?

EU just moves at a glacial pace.

One wrinkle to all this is that UK citizens may get RLAH in the EU after June 15 but depending on how they negotiate withdrawal, by 2019 they may no longer have RLAH rights.

[wolfbln]

Yes, there is good news and bad news in Europe.

The good news first: We will have no more roaming surcharges from June 15th, 2017 in 28 EU and 3 EEA countries. The Roam like at Home principle is now final and concerns all voice, SMS and most data for all EU-based providers on a SIM card issued in the EU.

While some big telcos have applauded this step like Vodafone that has own branded networks or partner networks in every country, smaller operators are much more critical about it. The cap on wholesale prices of €7.70 per GB that was agreed to in February is not enough for them.

So here is the bad news: Some telcos try to avoid or undermine this new roaming regulation, before it has even started. Here are some of their measures:
- some simply raise prices and say it's because of roaming
- some simply stop to offer internatl. roaming on some plans
- some try to outsource data volumes from their plans to "bonuses" or "benefits" not to be offered for roaming without surcharges
- some will apply the "sustainability clause" (see below)

There is one common concern: data rates are very different from country to country. For instance in Germany still €10/$11 per GB are payed, while in neighboring Poland there are prepaid plans offering 1GB for 1Zloty (that's €0.23/$0.25!). So there is a real danger that users from "expensive" countries will buy a SIM in a "cheap" country and use it permanently roaming at home. Thus all local or national pricing would be undercut.

So the EU agreed finally on some principles to guarantee "sustainability". It's essentially a FUP regulation. On cheap data plans or packages, not all of the included data needs to be given out for "roam like at home" (= without surcharges at the domestic rate), but only a certain quota. It's a minimum of around 2.2GB for a €10 plan or 4.5GB for a €20 plan. Overuse fee is again capped at the wholesale cap of €7.70 per GB plus local taxes.

Many operators from cheap countries will employ this FUP. So it's not all "Roam like at home", but as close as it can possibly get. The wholesale caps will come down in the next 5 years to €2.50 per GB resulting in lower prices all over.

But there is a lot of uncertainty amongst the smaller providers who don't have a pan-European network in their back as they are afraid to lose revenues. It may lead to another consolidation of the telco industry on the continent when they add up figures after this roaming summer.

For the consumer, it surely means lower prices for roaming in the EU, but the gaps remain with countries not part of the regulation like Switzerland and possibly the UK in a few years. Some providers will charge 1000-times higher rates there for roaming! Well, this is still Europe: better look on a map before.

[peterdoo]

Originally Posted by wolfbln

Yes, there is good news and bad news in Europe.
For the consumer, it surely means lower prices for roaming in the EU, but the gaps remain with countries not part of the regulation like Switzerland and possibly the UK in a few years. Some providers will charge 1000-times higher rates there for roaming! Well, this is still Europe: better look on a map before.

Yes, sad but true. Vodafone Germany charging 4200 Euros per GB in Switzerland although Vodafone big boss claims, that Vodafone group treats Switzerland as a part of EU:

“We treat Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, as part of it so why would we not treat the UK that way?”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...phone-roaming/