Roaming charges have less than a year of life left in them if proposed
changes to the rules are fully implemented.
“Incoming call charges while travelling in the EU would be banned from 1
July 2014. Companies would have the choice to either 1) offer phone plans that
apply everywhere in the European Union (“roam like at home”), the price of
which will be driven by domestic competition, or 2) allow their customers to
“decouple”, that is: opt for a separate roaming provider who offers cheaper
rates (without having to buy a new SIM card). This builds on the 2012 Roaming
Regulation which subjects operators to wholesale price cuts of 67% for data in
July 2014.News on changes to roaming charges in EU
For those who take their phone on holiday this will be very welcome and
stories of bill shock are a common staple for consumer columns in newspaper in
August and September. The question mark that is looming over this good news is
what the side effects may be, apparently roaming is worth some £6 billion to
the operators across Europe and it is unlikely they will simply give up this
revenue. We having a feeling that we may see call plans increase in price to
compensate.
The removal of roaming charges has gained the largest press coverage but
there is also to be an end to international call premiums between member
states, where a fixed call between countries in the EU cannot be charged at a
higher cost than a long distance domestic call, this applies to both mobile and
fixed line telephone. A price cap will also be placed in mobile calls between
countries of 19 cents (plus VAT) per call.
The rise of the anytime and international calls add-ons have slashed peoples
telephone bills compared to a decade ago, but we suspect they are also part of
the reason that line rental prices have increased.
There is much more proposed by the EU as part of their push for a single
telecoms market, but we are attempting to split it out into the various
component parts to avoid massively long articles.
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Anyone got any idea how this will affect bundled minutes/texts/etc.?
My understanding is that your bundle should just work as if at home, but until the providers offer stuff and find the various loopholes it will be a bit of a guessing game.
Let’s hope the baby doesn’t go out with the bathwater. Roaming charges incentivised operators to make a fairly complex thing work well.
Three has just announced it is abolishing roaming charges in countries where it has a sister network. Your inclusive minutes & texts will be used as if at home. I expect other carriers to follow, though it remains to be seen how they will approach this where they don’t have a sister network.
I would like to see the EU stop providers forbidding tethering on tariffs with a fixed data allowance. If you pay for xGB of data, why can’t you use it anyway you want?
On the one hand I am looking forward to being able to use my phone when abroad, (at a reasonable cost) on the other had I fear what this will do to the monthly contract charge.
Michael – who stops you tethering? It’s only Apple/ O2 as far as I’m aware. Apple are as much to blame.
You can tether on any android device.
@westli1 Tethering is against the T&C of many mobile contracts and PAYG arrangements. If you tether with a contract you risk that you will be charged at some horrendous out of allowance charge rate. Using PAYG is safer in that respect.
I must admit I don’t tether often but I’ve never incurred any additional charges — I’m on a Sim only deal with VM.
I, for one, will be pleased they are to outlaw charges for incoming calls. I have no control over who calls me so why should I be made to pay to receive spam calls?
When I go abroad, I take the mobile phone with me but only switch on either when I want to make a call or each day at a time agreed with my family at home. Assuming I can find a signal that is!