EU may end all roaming charges

[wco81]

Originally Posted by NFH

I'm going a bit off-topic, but I stayed in a hotel last week where the hotel's internet provider had blocked SIP and all non-standard ports. When I told the hotel, they quickly got me another login where all ports were open. I wonder whether the regulations will apply to hotels as well?

Yeah I've run into that too.

But a more common problem, besides the cumbersome login procedures, is that the speeds are horrible, sometimes under 1 Mbps down, maybe .15 Mbps up.

If you can use the lower-priced mobile data bundles across the EU, more people may just not bother with Hotel Wifi.

[UKSTEVE]

I was chatting to a friendly UK dealer last week - he says that, when imposed free roaming comes in, the European networks will copy the US (AT&T/T-Mobile?) flat-rate global roaming deal and offer EDGE (GPRS) free - then ask for a per-gigabyte payment for 3G and 4G services...

Seems a bit sharp practice, but atypical of the cellcos IMHO.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by UKSTEVE

I was chatting to a friendly UK dealer last week - he says that, when imposed free roaming comes in, the European networks will copy the US (AT&T/T-Mobile?) flat-rate global roaming deal and offer EDGE (GPRS) free - then ask for a per-gigabyte payment for 3G and 4G services...

I don't think that would comply with the legislation, which obliges the networks to charge the same for intra-EEA roaming as they charge for domestic usage. For example, if they charge €10 for 1GB of 4G data domestically, then they must charge the same when roaming on 4G within the EEA.

[wco81]

Originally Posted by andy

Decision taken by MEPs, and roaming fees will be abolished by 2016 (December 15th 2015)

Also they will protect what is referred to a net neutrality, there can be no systems of charging some people extra for preferential access to the internet, or blocking data access to competing products such as VoIP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26866966

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meps-vote-s...y-2015-1443237

So do bills passed by the EU Parliament generally get approved by the member nations?

Is the near-unanimous vote an indication of the support this measure has in the EU countries or are the MEPs way out there?

It would seem the big mobile carriers would try to resist. IIRC the roaming fees they collect are not an insignificant portion or their revenues or profits.


I paid 28 Euros for Orange's Lets Go SIM and a 2 GB top up in France. I paid similar amounts for TIM but got 5 or 10 GB allotment over a month.

The other carriers in Italy have equally or more competitive pricing on their mobile data bundles. So why wouldn't they start selling their SIMs outside of Italy? Or market their lower prices to spur more sales?

It's hard to believe carriers in markets with less competitive pricing would accept this change without fighting against it.

[Stu]

TMoibile doesn't offer edge. It throttles 3G at 128k up and down. People can still run google Maps, stream music or do VOIP over 3G. Not everything at once, but it works.

[UKSTEVE]

Ah yes, I remember now. Doing that on a pan-European basis would make sense, with customers expected to pay extra for unthrottled access.

In fact, I wouldn't put it past the cellcos to introduce some form of throttling on their in-country services and then surcharge for full whack 3G and 4G access...

+Steve

[wco81]

EU is still trying to set a date but it appears lobbying by national carriers has led to some potential compromises:

In April EU lawmakers gave it a ringing endorsement by overwhelmingly voting to abolish roaming fees by Dec. 15 2015.

But the Italian proposal, seen by Reuters, makes no mention of the date originally set by the European Parliament.

"The legislative date for the initial introduction of RLAH (roam like at home), subject to transitional measures and fair use limits, needs to be defined and is a significant political question," the draft document states.

Italy's undersecretary for telecoms Antonello Giacomelli reaffirmed on Friday his government's commitment to setting a date for abolishing roaming charges, a common headache for Europeans travelling across the continent.

"The Italian presidency has not proposed any delay to the end of roaming charges, on the contrary it intends to set a fixed date," he said in a statement.

"To this end it is trying to reach the best compromise between the different positions," he added.

ROAM LIKE AT HOME, UP TO A POINT

Though the draft will be further revised, it suggests a "glidepath", or gradual increase in the usage allowances that will be charged at domestic rates, towards the goal of "roam like at home" (RLAH) - a time where someone using, say, a British mobile phone in Italy will pay the same charges as if they were still in Britain.

But some countries are worried that spelling out exactly how gradually roaming fees should come to an end is too prescriptive and should be left to national regulators.

"It's very split," said another EU diplomat.

"Some member states ... are concerned about the investment effect it could have on their operators and therefore quite cautious about doing anything which they feel may harm some of their large incumbents."

Telecoms operators have protested against the end of roaming, although in private they admit that the fees must come to an end. However they say that doing so prematurely would remove a source of revenue that could hinder their ability to invest in upgrading their networks.

In a move seen as aimed at assuaging operators, the latest text under discussion foresees that users would pay domestic rates for using their mobile phone abroad only for a limited amount of consumption, the so-called 'fair use'. Anything above that would be charged at a higher rate.

"The possibility of introducing a fair use clause has been well received by all member states," Giacomelli said, adding that it would require further work.

The daily fair use limits for mobile phones would be calculated on the basis of "average annual domestic consumption in the EU".

The text suggests that "in an initial period the minimum fair use limit would be defined as a fraction of the daily average domestic consumption", and would gradually rise so as to fully reflect average daily use. It does not spell out how long the process would take.

Italy sees the "fair use" mechanism as a way to avoid people abusing the system, such as by purchasing SIM cards in EU countries where tariffs are lower, and then using them in countries where fees are higher.

Operators fear this could lead to an over-competitive internal market for mobile phones and a damaging drop in rates.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0HL2AO20140926

[andy]

"... doing so prematurely ..." they whinge

The single European market was supposed to have been enacted many years ago, observed by most other commerce, and mobile operators have been dragged kicking and screaming towards it for long enough time for them to have had plenty of fair warning

Why are they prevaricating now about "setting a date"?

One date has already been set. Free incoming calls etc by less than a year from now. Stop pissing about trying to invent more bureaucracy and excuses and just get on with it.

[wco81]

Well the telecoms are apparently striking back.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31748592

European regulators have dropped plans to ban roaming charges and have proposed net neutrality rules allowing privileged access in some cases.

They called for an "intermediate step" that would still allow carriers to charge more to use mobiles abroad.

And net neutrality rules would bar discrimination in internet access, but allow prioritisation of some services.

The proposals were a significant departure from those first floated in 2013, observers said.

According to documents seen by the BBC, far from ending data roaming charges as was promised, the European Commission has recommended that operators be allowed to add surcharges to their domestic rates.

The proposals were said to be "transitional" and mindful of "wholesale costs" incurred by the mobile operators.

But, according to Ovum analyst Matthew Howett, they would amount to the continuation of data roaming charges until at least 2018, when European lawmakers would reconsider whether or not to ban them.

The watering down of the original plan would be a blow to consumers, he told the BBC. However, he said, that was tempered by the fact that many operators had already introduced more reasonable charges.

[wolfbln]

Yes it seems that the telcos (or cellcos) have won this round..... They had too many poins on their side: markets in Europe are still organized nationally, licenses are auctioned country by country a.s.o. One has to admit that Europe is only good to tear down borders if it's good for business. But it's another story, when you can actually make big money by borders like here. Then the spirit of Europe is just an idea (or illusion).

So I think we will see a further gradual lowering of the rate caps for roaming like they did in the past. But no ban on roaming charges altogether. Some providers may scrap incoming roaming (which is really minimal nowadays) voluntarily. But the rest is still big, big money.

The best example are data: EU cap stands at 20c/MB plus tax. And most of the offers are just below the cap. So they sell you 1 MB for about 23c or 1 GB for 230€. Average price in package for domestic use in Europe ranges 5-20€ per GB (mostly around 10€). So the roaming cap is the 23-fold of the average domestic price for data.

In Germany some providers actually use this as a marketing scoop: They "promise" to sell you data for the same rate domestically and within the EU. They do this with a trick: The standard or default domestic rate is put so high (at around 23c/MB) that it matches the EU cap rate. No word of packages, of course. I think that was their strategy to undermine a roaming surcharges ban, if it had been ordered by law.

We still have a long way to go on this continent. But there must remain something, you do better somewhere else LOL