EU may end all roaming charges

[ronwi]

The big difference with the US is that for the most part the cell phone companies are national - a California user travelling 2500 miles to New York is still utilizing the same carrier.

Vodafone in Europe seems to be the closest to this - the various Vodafones in various European countries do seem to have the best roaming plans for Europe.

Another issue could be the ID laws in the various EU countries could be undercut by this. Right now, in Italy one needs to show a passport and tax ID to get a SIM. In Spain, one needs to show one's passport. There are probably other examples, and the trend seems to be towards more ID requirments.

Then you have the UK where you can buy a SIM card and never show any ID to anyone. One can buy a SIM in the UK an use it in Italy, but there are roaming charges so this is not a practical solution for an Italian who doesn't want to show ID to obtain a SIM. However, if anyone can buy a SIM in the UK and use it in Italy with no roaming charges at all, then Italy's ID system is undercut - just buy a UK SIM off of ebay, and you can use it in Italy with no roaming charges.

Originally Posted by NFH

Based on the European Commission's plans and comments, it is possible that it will cost the same to make a call to a mobile or fixed line anywhere within the EU; O2 Slovakia already does this. It would be nice if the country of one's mobile number no longer has any financial significance and becomes merely the personal choice of the user, i.e. with which country they want to associate themselves. This would be akin to North America whereby consumers choose mobile numbers solely based on the area code with which they want to be associated.

Assuming that it will cost the same to use a SIM card throughout the EU, it will be particularly attractive to have a prepaid SIM card issued in the UK:

• No requirement to top up to keep SIM cards active; one balance deduction every six months suffices.
• All the major international companies are already main networks in the UK - Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three.
• No VAT on roaming outside the EU VAT area. The UK opted to exempt non-EU roaming from UK VAT under Article 9(3)(a) of Council Directive 77/388 ("the Sixth VAT Directive") so that it could charge UK VAT to visitors from outside the EU VAT area who are roaming in the UK. This was enacted under Article 19 of the Value Added Tax (Place of Supply of Services) Order 1992.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by ronwi

Another issue could be the ID laws in the various EU countries could be undercut by this. Right now, in Italy one needs to show a passport and tax ID to get a SIM. In Spain, one needs to show one's passport. There are probably other examples, and the trend seems to be towards more ID requirments.

Then you have the UK where you can buy a SIM card and never show any ID to anyone. One can buy a SIM in the UK an use it in Italy, but there are roaming charges so this is not a practical solution for an Italian who doesn't want to show ID to obtain a SIM. However, if anyone can buy a SIM in the UK and use it in Italy with no roaming charges at all, then Italy's ID system is undercut - just buy a UK SIM off of ebay, and you can use it in Italy with no roaming charges.

Most of the ID requirements were introduced in order to prevent anonymous use by criminals, particularly terrorists. If a terrorist wants to use a UK SIM card in Italy or Spain, he's not going to worry about roaming charges!

But apart from potential criminal use, these proposed changes should give the UK a competitive advantage over operators in many other European countries. The only impediment is the currency, as consumers in the Eurozone may find it unattractive to have to pay in sterling.

[ronwi]

Originally Posted by NFH

Most of the ID requirements were introduced in order to prevent anonymous use by criminals, particularly terrorists. If a terrorist wants to use a UK SIM card in Italy or Spain, he's not going to worry about roaming charges!

But apart from potential criminal use, these proposed changes should give the UK a competitive advantage over operators in many other European countries. The only impediment is the currency, as consumers in the Eurozone may find it unattractive to have to pay in sterling.

But, the UK operators might not want that business - it would likely not be an economic proposition for Tmobile UK for someone in Italy to buy a cheap UK Tmobile SIM and use it solely to make intra-Italy calls on Wind.

[andy]

Originally Posted by ronwi

Vodafone in Europe seems to be the closest to this - the various Vodafones in various European countries do seem to have the best roaming plans for Europe.

It depends on people's likely usage. The previous Passport option had a connection fee per call, which for a series of mainly short calls would add up quickly to more expensive than the Eurotariff, but worked out ok for a long family call in the evening.

Contract users now still have their home bundle available and pay a daily fee on the first use of the day. That seems reasonable to some of them, and perhaps they can't be convinced that it might be worth a look around if their use is fairly modest.

So for instance I've been with friends who have spent £60 for the last 3 weeks, OK for some but more than necessary for the less intense users, while I spent about £4 on a mixture of VoIP over WiFi and data and calls on a Toggle SIM, including that I could check all the daily and overall scores of the event, plus my emails, and some weather and news websites, for 3 pence of mobile data rather than 3 quid.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by ronwi

The big difference with the US is that for the most part the cell phone companies are national - a California user travelling 2500 miles to New York is still utilizing the same carrier.

Actually, the EU countries beat the US to nationwide carriers by more than 10 years. It's just that there is not quite yet a United States of Europe. What they are talking about is the equivalent of traveling from Toronto to San José, Costa Rica with no roaming.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Actually, the EU countries beat the US to nationwide carriers by more than 10 years. It's just that there is not quite yet a United States of Europe. What they are talking about is the equivalent of traveling from Toronto to San José, Costa Rica with no roaming.

EU countries have never had regional networks. In some cases, new networks have had coverage confined to a particular region within a country, but this has only been temporary while they rolled out their network nationally.

There is no company which yet has coverage throughout the whole of the EU. The most likely to achieve this are:

• Vodafone - British company
• Orange - owned by France Télécom but originally a British brand
• O2 - owned by Telefonica (Spanish incumbent ex-monopoly) but originally a British brand
• T-Mobile - part of Deutsche Telekom

Some other companies which already cover several EU countries are:

• 3 - Hong Kong company
• TeliaSonera - Swedish company