EU comission to limit roaming-SMS price to € 0,11-0,15 on Sept 23rd

Effendi · 20-09-2008, 13:18

Well in Italy we nearly have no subsidized handsets, if not with some more expensive postpaid contracts, and people send really A LOT of SMS, but they still kept on increasing the rates to 15 cent for national, 30 cent international (except Wind) and 50 cent for roaming in EU (Wind).
Carriers just get TOO much money from SMS since people are too much used to send them and they will never stop... Here in Italy we don't have included texts in postpaid contracts, we just have some prepaid bundles of texts to the same operator's numbers. And they don't work while on roaming. So Reding's proposal is great for all italians traveling abroad.

VladS · 20-09-2008, 17:01

Over here in Canada and even the US, I see an increasing number of people migrating from plain old SMS service to mobile IM services, either provided by the operator or third parties over packet radio (Fring, MSN Live Mobile etc).

I have yet to see a similar move in Europe where wireless data has been quite affordable for years now. I've seen people who would rather carry a second phone just to be able to SMS their circle of friends using products similar to those offered by Aldi in Germany(€0.03/each to other Aldi customers).

While I don't personally SMS that much (10-20 SMS/year is a lot), I jumped into the Fring bandwagon and love it.

	(#1)
Effendi (Offline) The great Dictator! Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,487 Join Date: 13 Jan 2004 Location: Trieste/Trst Country:	20-09-2008, 13:18 Well in Italy we nearly have no subsidized handsets, if not with some more expensive postpaid contracts, and people send really A LOT of SMS, but they still kept on increasing the rates to 15 cent for national, 30 cent international (except Wind) and 50 cent for roaming in EU (Wind). Carriers just get TOO much money from SMS since people are too much used to send them and they will never stop... Here in Italy we don't have included texts in postpaid contracts, we just have some prepaid bundles of texts to the same operator's numbers. And they don't work while on roaming. So Reding's proposal is great for all italians traveling abroad. Working Prepaids: IT: Wind, Vodafone IT, UNO Mobile; SM: Prima; UK: 3, Virgin; INT: TravelSIM, Truphone. Deceased Prepaids: CZ: Oskar, Eurotel; SK: Orange; DE: E-Plus, Aldi, Simyo; GE: Geocell; AM: Armentel; PL: Heyah, Plus; LT: Tele2; LV: Amigo; EE: Elisa; UA: Kyivstar; NZ: Vodafone; INT: UM, UM+, ICQSim. GSM/3G Phones: Nokia Lumia 630 dual sim

	(#2)
VladS (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 590 Join Date: 22 Jun 2004 Country:	20-09-2008, 17:01 Over here in Canada and even the US, I see an increasing number of people migrating from plain old SMS service to mobile IM services, either provided by the operator or third parties over packet radio (Fring, MSN Live Mobile etc). I have yet to see a similar move in Europe where wireless data has been quite affordable for years now. I've seen people who would rather carry a second phone just to be able to SMS their circle of friends using products similar to those offered by Aldi in Germany(€0.03/each to other Aldi customers). While I don't personally SMS that much (10-20 SMS/year is a lot), I jumped into the Fring bandwagon and love it. VladS Mobile phones: iPhone 5, Blackberry 9900, Nexus S, Samsung S3322 duos Mobile data cards: Huawei E587u-5, Huawei E583c, Huawei E160 Postpaid SIMs: CA: Fido, Wind; INTL: Telna Prepaid SIMs: DE: Fonic, Lidl; AT: yesss!, bob; UK: O2; US: AT&T; RO: Orange, Vodafone; FR: b&you, Lycamobile; NL: Lycamobile; BE: Lycamobile, Jim Mobile; CL: Entel; MX: Telcel; INTL: eKit Blue, eKit Yellow Dead SIMs: too many to list