EU may end all roaming charges

[inquisitor]

HMG isn't alone with their opposition. According to several reports in the German-speaking media from 25 September (linked below) not a single country has agreed to the EU Commission's proposals for future roaming regulations. France and Italy have even fully rejected Neelie Kroes' plans which are also unlikey to find sufficient support by the Council of the European Union. Members of the European Parliament are cited saying that there is no need to railroad through reforms of the telecoms sector before the upcoming elections to the European Parliament to be held between 22 and 25 May 2014.

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrich...Gebuehren.html
http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Wi...gebuehren.html
http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/...nd_133616.html

[NFH]

Interesting. I can understand the UK (Vodafone), France (France Télécom), Germany (Deutsche Telekom) and Spain (Telefónica) objecting, given that they are the home country of most EU multinational mobile networks, but Italy is surprising. On the other hand, it is hardly surprising that no small countries object because the status quo affects them disproportionately.

[inquisitor]

The opposition from Italy, France and Spain may also be linked to these countries' assymetric roaming volumes (more inbound than outbound roaming) and the absolute high number of inbound roamers which probably generate significant revenues for the local MNOs:

With more than 46.1 million tourists a year, Italy is the fifth highest tourist earner, and fifth most visited country in the world, behind France (79.5 million), United States (62.3 million), China (57.6) and Spain (56.7 million).

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Italy

[NFH]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

The opposition from Italy, France and Spain may also be linked to these countries' assymetric roaming volumes (more inbound than outbound roaming) and the absolute high number of inbound roamers which probably generate significant revenues for the local MNOs

I imagine that the networks which stand to lose the most profit from the European Commission's proposals are the home networks, not the visited networks. The visited networks mostly charge a reasonable wholesale price to the home networks (evident from some of the competitive roaming bundles that home networks offer), but it is the home networks who mark up these wholesale prices to unreasonable retail levels, particularly for out-of-bundle prices.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by NFH

For example, the UK government hasn't opted to include GBP in SEPA, unlike Sweden which opted to include SEK.

Not being European I did not have a clue about SEPA.

According to: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...+Payments+Area

The UK is a part of SEPA.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Not being European I did not have a clue about SEPA.

According to: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...+Payments+Area

The UK is a part of SEPA.

Yes, the UK is part of SEPA, but GBP is not. Therefore UK banks have to charge cross-border EUR payments in the same way as intra-UK EUR payments, but this doesn't apply to GBP payments. Banks in Sweden on the other hand have to charge cross-border SEK or EUR payments in the same way as intra-Swedish SEK or EUR payments.

[NFH]

The Sydney Morning Herald is tomorrow reporting that Australia and New Zealand are following the European Commission's lead and cracking down on exorbitant roaming charges between the two countries:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/tec...017-2vpej.html

[inquisitor]

WIK Consult, a German telecoms advisory firm, has studied the Trans-Tasman roaming market for the Australian Government which resulted in the following report published in May 2012:
http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-indus...IK%20Study.pdf
Quite an interesting read as it explains many commercial and technical basics of cellular roaming by also making references to the experiences of European roaming regulation.

Further reports issued by the Australian Government:
http://ris.finance.gov.au/files/2013/02/03-TTMR-RIS.pdf
http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-indus...t%20Report.pdf

[tux]

http://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/...ti-i-costi.htm

After all, Italy isn't against Kroes' proposal...

[Effendi]

Italian Governmen isn't against it, but Italian operators are, of course!