lower rates from July 1?

[fsotirop]

yes it's a vodafone's italy simcard, i use the europasim with no problem since 2010... i don't really care if he's or not do legal trading...

[Effendi]

From July 16th that option won't exist anymore.
There will be the new Vodafone Smart Passport:
Piani tariffari e tariffe internet estero: Vodafone

[andy]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

The new EU-mandated rates are due to start July 1, and I see that some of the UK carriers are lowering their data rates, but closer to £1/MB than the 50p/MB that the EU requires.

The required rate is 70 cents per MB, plus VAT, with the exchange rate for non-Euro currencies taken from an official EU rate published on 1st June

For UK users, this appears to mean a maximum of 67.19 pence a megabyte

But some networks seem to be heading more towards flat rate bundles, though fairly modest sized, which is fine for some users but more expensive for others

[Stu]

With ATT USA, we are now paying US$30 for 120 megs of EU (and many other countries) data"

AT&T International - Wireless from AT&T

With Verizon, it is US$25 for 100 megs of EU (and many other countries) data:

Global Data

Voice is still more expensive, but you'd think that Orange (France Telecom & TMobile) could offer cheaper data packages for France and Germany than a US carrier could.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by andy

The required rate is 70 cents per MB, plus VAT, with the exchange rate for non-Euro currencies taken from an official EU rate published on 1st June

For UK users, this appears to mean a maximum of 67.19 pence a megabyte

You are correct. €0.70 x 0.7999 x 1.20 = £0.671916

However, Ofcom have mistakenly told the mobile networks to use a EUR/GBP rate of 0.82930, resulting in all the networks breaching the price caps by around 3.5% or more. Talkmobile is the worst offender, for example:

• In Germany, Talkmobile charges £0.70/MB, 4.2% more than the price cap of £0.671916/MB (including VAT).
• In Spain, Talkmobile charges £0.29/min, 4.2% more than the price cap of £0.2783652/min (including VAT).
• In Norway (part of the EEA), Talkmobile charges £0.25 to send a text, 3.5 times the price cap of £0.071991 (no VAT applicable).
• In Réunion (an integral part of France and the EU), Talkmobile charges £1.70/min, 7.3 times the price cap of £0.231971/min (no VAT applicable).
• In Gibraltar (part of the EU since 1973), Talkmobile charges £7.50/MB, 13.4 times the price cap of £0.55993/MB (no VAT applicable).

[andy]

Originally Posted by andy

The required rate is 70 cents per MB, plus VAT, with the exchange rate for non-Euro currencies taken from an official EU rate published on 1st June

For UK users, this appears to mean a maximum of 67.19 pence a megabyte

But some networks seem to be heading more towards flat rate bundles, though fairly modest sized, which is fine for some users but more expensive for others

Actually it transpires I was a bit inaccurate with this, as the most recent roaming regulation has a different arrangement for the relevant dates to fix the exchange rate for the year.

The link to the new regulation, published in the EU Official Journal on 30th June, only appeared on the EU website a couple of days ago (and some pages have the old link), so I'm forgiving myself for the wrong assumption about the previous arrangement being carried forward.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...10:0035:EN:PDF

7. Where maximum charges under Articles 8, 10 and 13 are denominated in currencies other than the euro, the initial limits pursuant to those Articles shall be determined in those currencies by applying the average of the reference exchange rates published on 1 March, 1 April and 1 May 2012 by the European Central Bank in the Official Journal of the European Union.

To save people searching paragraphs - that's for retail purposes. For wholesale the exchange rates are taken from the 1st May.

The pound has gradually become slightly stronger against the euro in the last few months, so a slightly higher permissible limit in pence derives from that averaging, hence 69 pence rather than that 67 on one or two networks.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by andy

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...10:0035:EN:PDF

7. Where maximum charges under Articles 8, 10 and 13 are denominated in currencies other than the euro, the initial limits pursuant to those Articles shall be determined in those currencies by applying the average of the reference exchange rates published on 1 March, 1 April and 1 May 2012 by the European Central Bank in the Official Journal of the European Union.

To save people searching paragraphs - that's for retail purposes. For wholesale the exchange rates are taken from the 1st May.

The pound has gradually become slightly stronger against the euro in the last few months, so a slightly higher permissible limit in pence derives from that averaging, hence 69 pence rather than that 67 on one or two networks.

The relevant EUR/GBP rates published in the EU Official Journal on 1st March, April and May were 0.84390, 0.83105 and 0.81295, so the average is 0.82930. This is the correct rate that Ofcom and the UK mobile networks are using.

[fsotirop]

travelsim also reduced their voice & data rates within europe.
http://new.travelsim.com/wp-content/...lSim_rates.pdf
voice rates for calling within europe just 0.19eur. per minute
data rate within europe 0.50eur. per mb.

[davidtheprof]

Just ordered a Piranha mobile sim, dual US-UK number is free, (not Estonia or Isle of Man, so cheap for people to call you), good rates in most locations, though data rates vary by provider in some countries (I've been assured that the sim will try to register on the "preferred" provider with cheaper data, we'll see..)
also want to try out the VOIP integration, on WIFI people are meant to be able to call you on the same number as the SIM.
outside UK and US, it's a call-back system, have to see how reliable that is. Had problems a few years back when I had a Geosim.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

Just ordered a Piranha mobile sim, dual US-UK number is free, (not Estonia or Isle of Man, so cheap for people to call you), good rates in most locations, though data rates vary by provider in some countries (I've been assured that the sim will try to register on the "preferred" provider with cheaper data, we'll see..)
also want to try out the VOIP integration, on WIFI people are meant to be able to call you on the same number as the SIM.
outside UK and US, it's a call-back system, have to see how reliable that is. Had problems a few years back when I had a Geosim.

my experience with the reliablity of piranha sim is quite good and very competitive rates. the voip application worked fine on my android phone.
very important: if calls are received via the voip applicattion there is NO charge for the incoming calls, in all countries!
outgoing calls via the voip application are much much chepear than calling directly via the mobile network.
i recommend to use the voip application only via WIFI, not via 3G.

there are some countries (mainly non-european) that piranha sim is calling directly, call through without callback.

the sim in Greece registers to the stongest signal network availiable.
Piranha mobile uses a true UK number, as Maxroam do, not Jersey or IOM prefixes.

the only serious disadvantage discovered afterwards is that unaswered by the reciepient calls are charged, from the time the callback is answered.
the charge per unaswered call while roaming in Greece (depends on roming country) is 0.09pounds.
if the call is answered only the normal per minute charge is billed.

I also attached a local Greek number to my sim for 2pounds per month and works great, no additional charges when receiving calls to the Greek number.
local numbers are availiable for over 70countries

for data roaming i use Roamline & Ekit Global Premium Service simcads, depending which is the cheapest for the country i'm roaming.
these 2simcards have the lowest possible data rates for medium-high usage... medium-high usage=approximately above 60mb per week