EU may end all roaming charges

[NFH]

That's a very useful and well-informed post, inquisitor, except that I disagree with the following:

Originally Posted by inquisitor

By this new regulation the EU will squeeze those smaller undercutting players out of the market, harm competition and foster oligopols. As a result consumers will have to pay higher prices in their home countries just for saving a few Euros during their holidays.

The EU's original proposal was only that consumers can choose a roaming provider other than their home network; this introduces competition which does not exist currently. Now the networks are being given a second option whereby a network can prevent consumers from choosing an alternative roaming provider but only if the home network applies its domestic prices when roaming. This additional option gives more flexibility to networks; they can choose either option.

As you suggest, small competitive MVNOs might be unable to extend their domestic prices for roaming throughout the EEA, but they still have the option of allowing an alternative roaming provider. Giffgaff in the UK is a good example. Although Giffgaff charges £7.50 for a gigabyte in the UK, it charges a whopping £450 per gigabyte in other European countries, i.e. 60 times as much. Unlike other UK networks, Giffgaff doesn't offer any data roaming bundles. Since Giffgaff does not aim to be competitive for roaming and its domestic prices might be too low to extend for usage throughout the EEA, it might choose the original first option of allowing its customers to use an alternative roaming provider.