lower rates from July 1?

[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.