Roaming costs to be progressively capped

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

This afternoon, after years of debate the European Union finally reached a "preliminary" deal to cap the costs of making and receiving calls on your mobile phone when out of your home country in other parts of the EU. Subject to final ratification in the European Parliament on May 23rd and by the EU Telecommunications ministries on June 7th, calls abroad will be limited to €0.49 per minute for outgoing and €0.24 per minute for incoming, falling progressively to €0.43 and €0.19 respectively over the next two years. It'll take 3 months to implement the law, so consumers will miss much of the 2007 summer season when so many are abroad. It's long been an EU goal to reduce roaming costs, but today is the first announcement of actual figures. The new rules have been pushed through the EU in record time, at least in comparison to the many years most European legislature requires.

 

"Roaming Costs" for use of mobiles abroad have long been considered excessive and controlled by the cartel of international mobile network operators (roaming is said to represent 2% of their costs but 9% of their revenue). The new law will require all customers, irrespective of their current contract to be offered the new prices, and may even spark a new competition war of offers with rates below the accepted limits. As wholesale prices (the inter-operator charges) are forced by law down to €0.26 per minute over the next 2 years there is plenty of room for manoeuvre to bring further reductions to the consumer.

 

Press Release

[imagi 1]

While I feel ripped off by the current roaming costs, I don't like the approach taken here. It seems like some cheap point scoring with the populace by the commission. Far better would be for carriers to make their charging structures more transparent. All this move does is shift the costs of keeping a mobile network running onto those people who do not roam.

[RockThrust 8]

I think they had been trying to get them to do this voluntarily for years - but gave up and used legistlation.

 

RT

[ian 3,996]

All of the price reductions, transparency of charges and "take your number with you" were in response to National and EU legislation. The networks do not do anything unless they are forced to! Kick 'em where it hurts I say!

[imagi 1]

 

but gave up and used legistlation.

Then they should have passed legislation to achieve that.

 

I agree roaming charges seem high but if you look at the trend over the last 5 years, they have been coming down. If a particular carrier is high, then switch or use a payphone.

[imagi 1]

 

Kick 'em where it hurts I say!

So, you expect them to just take the hit and not reclaim the lost revenue by upping charges on non-roaming users?

[ian 3,996]

Legislation is preventing them from monopolosing their positions. Allowing resellers to come into the market and give competitive alternatives. This has been forced on them, and thus brings the roaming charges down.

 

They make a disproportionate amount of money from what they put in. This is why it is being regulated. Yes they will try and get it back any way they can. But regulation and competition will prevent this.

 

Do not feel sorry for them. They will take what they can get. Don't stand too near the cage!

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

 

the trend over the last 5 years, they have been coming down...

Could you point me at this trend? The whole point is that the alleged cartel has hardly decreased roaming charges to the end customer since the implementation of the ANSI-41 roaming standard when GSM technology first began to appear, with the exception of some recent new contracts inspired by the likelihood of enforced reductions. As an aggressive mobile user myself and frequent international traveller I don't believe my roaming charges have reduced since I first got a GSM phone in 1992. A key element in the proposal agreed today is that existing contracts will have enforced reductions.

[imagi 1]

 

Do not feel sorry for them. They will take what they can get. Don't stand too near the cage!

I don't feel sorry for them - I've been trying to work with them on another project and they are terrible to work with. Absolutely horrible. My point is that putting caps on the roaming market distorts it. Yes, lets regulate them and make it easy to discern roaming costs or force them to send an advice of charge after each call when roaming (part of the GSM spec and all phones support this). But the current legislation just means non-roamers pay more.

 

 

Could you point me at this trend?

I do remember the days of Roaming on the PacBell network with my Orange contract phone - that was free since PacBell didn't yet know how to do bill backs. But some real examples are

Vodafone passport and T Mobile's Onezone (both introduced before Viviane Reding got involved).

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

 

But some real examples are Vodafone passport and T Mobile's Onezone

These are not trends but isolated and recent examples of equally rip-off contracts reinforcing a supplier monopoly (as they reduced rates are only available when roaming with the same provider) and where the roaming customer is penalised in particular for short calls

[ian 3,996]

The markets usually decide what costs are appropriate. Except where certain companies are in monopolistic positions. in these cases regulation is needed when you see the behaviour of the companies in these situations.

 

My bill has come down a lot over the years. And there have been many regulations along the way that have enabled this.

[aero 15]

 

use a payphone.

The whole idea with the roaming is that you can be reached on your own phone number ,so I don't see how you can use a payphone for roaming.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

When travelling abroad I now use VoIP service from my LapTop. The proliferation of WiFi access points and the relative cheap cost (even €25 a day for WiFi is more than paid for on call-cost savings) make it worthwhile. My landline (VoIP) number travels with me so people calling me don't even need to look up my mobile number and save money themselves. It's a win-win situation. I have a cordless DECT VoIP phone that plugs into my LapTop so no inconvenience for me either or messing about with headsets.

[HellesAngel 1,889]

 

But the current legislation just means non-roamers pay more.

What is supposed to happen is the mobile operators, like many other technology based companies, should innovate and find new services to charge premium rates for, not simply to charge extortionate amounts for stone age (relatively) technology. You seem to be a non-traveller and, rather selfishly it appears, assuming that you will be hurt if the current gross overcharging is ended. To answer this you should just consider for a moment how likely it is that any operator would increase charges for voice calls considering the fierce competition for subscribers. Exactly.

 

In this case the EU is exactly right to act and stop this blatant price manipulation. The very nature of radio based communications means the competetive field will be limited making the chances of price fixing higher. Sure the mobile operators deserve some extra for routing international mobile calls but seeing how the GSM spec is 20 years old now it seems incredible that a simple GSM speech call from abroad across well established networks can cost so much. Perhaps this lost revenue will, eventually, force them to innovate and come up with new ideas for us all. In the bad old days of telecoms a state monopoly could charge a king's ransom for a brown bacolite phone that barely worked and it is mostly competition that has got us this far. When competition fails then regulators should act.

[imagi 1]

 

I have a cordless DECT VoIP phone that plugs into my LapTop so no inconvenience for me either or messing about with headsets.

I use my Nokia E61 signed into an open access point or bridged to my laptop which then calls back to my home asterisk server and out via some least cost routing I have setup. As I mentioned I'm the last to support the mobile operators. And I'm not the only one.

 

 

What is supposed to happen is the mobile operators, like many other technology based companies, should innovate and find new services to charge premium rates for, not simply to charge extortionate amounts for stone age (relatively) technology.

It may be stone age technology but someone has to maintain it. A DSL Internet connection is not €20/month for the bits. No they are a fraction of the cost of employing support staff, running backbone networks, monitoring, investing in upgrades and billing. Somehow these costs have to be recouped or we'd be back to a network of payphones. Perhaps we'd be better of with state telecom monopolies again?

 

If on the other hand you are suggesting that the carriers are colluding on price, then surely that would be a job for the competition commission in that country?

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

The legislation for roaming prices within the EU (note only EU roaming, so charges in USA, Switzerland and Turkey will not change) has now been approved and will come into force on June 30. All providers are required to contact their customers by the end of July to offer them new contracts or modified contracts which include the new roaming prices. The customer must agree to this change before the new charges will be applied, and in some case that can take up to one month to implement, so many people may not be able to take advantage of new roaming charges before early September. Revised or replacement contracts must not disadvantage the customer in anyway, so cannot extend the contract period for example.

 

If you plan on roaming in the EU in the near future you should take action now to force the change from your provider - this could still take up to a month to implement. A suggested letter text to your provider is shown below. The provider should respond in writing with confirmation of the change of tarif, date of changeover and new prices.

 

Betr.:Umstellung Euro-Tarif

<your address>

<provider address (see below)>

<date>

 

Mein Kundennummer (your customer number):

Mein Handynummer (your mobile number):

 

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

 

bezugnehmend auf die EU-Verordnung zur Senkung der Roaminggebühren im Europäischen

Ausland, welche zum 30. Juni 2007 in Kraft treten wird, beantrage ich für die oben genannte

Mobilfunknummer zum nächstmöglichen Termin die Umstellung des Roaming-Tarifs auf den

günstigsten Tarif, der innerhalb der gesetzlichen Höchstgrenzen (Euro-Tarif) liegt bzw. liegen wird.

Bitte betrachten Sie dieses Schreiben als gegenstandslos, sofern mein Roamingtarif bereits

umgestellt wurde oder automatisch umgestellt wird.

Bitte senden Sie mir eine kurze Bestätigung über den Erhalt des Schreibens. Bitte nennen Sie mir

zudem den ersten Tag der Gültigkeit des Euro-Tarifs und die genaue Bezeichnung des geschalteten

Roamingstarifs.

 

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

 

(Sign)

Your name

 

Addresses to send the letter to:

Direct providers:

T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, Postfach 30 04 44, 53184 Bonn

Vodafone D2 GmbH, Abteilung CAS, 40875 Ratingen

E-Plus Service GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach, 14425 Potsdam

o2 Germany GmbH & Co. OHG, Kundenbetreuung, 90345 Nürnberg

 

Third party service providers:

debitel AG, Kundenbetreuung, 70545 Stuttgart

mobilcom Communicationstechnik GmbH, Kundenservice, 99076 Erfurt

Talkline GmbH & Co KG, Kundenservice Talkline-Platz 1, 25337 Elmshorn

The Phone House Telecom GmbH, Münsterstr. 109, 48155 Münster/W.

Victorvox AG, Dießemer Bruch 61, 47805 Krefeld

 

Discounters:

ALDI Talk, c/o E-Plus Service GmbH & Co KG, Postfach, 14425 Potsdam

BASE, c/o E-Plus Service GmbH & Co KG, Postfach, 14425 Potsdam

blau Mobilfunk GmbH, 26081 Oldenburg

callmobile Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Kieler Str. 131, 22769 Hamburg

klarmobil GmbH, Kundenservice Postfach 0661, 24753 Rendsburg

simply communication GmbH, Dießemer Bruch 61, 47805 Krefeld

simyo GmbH, Postfach 17 10, 31817 Springe

smobil, c/o allMobility Deutschland GmbH, Kundenservice, Postfach 100265, 76256 Ettlingen

tchibo direct GmbH, Kundenbetreuung, 90345 Nürnberg

 

This information summarised and re-printed with permission of www.teltarif.de. A prepared, formatted sample of the above letter can be downloaded in pdf form from here

[daynov 4]

Bit silly that they have to send a letter and ask their customers if it's ok to give them cheaper calls..

 

Why don't they just automatically change the roaming costs and save a forest of paper...

[Allershausen 6,414]

Thanks for that YorkshireLad, I'll get that sent off.

[Wigan 0]

Daynov, maybe the hope is that many customers won't bother to reply to the letter, and so the operators can continue to charge them the old higher roaming charges?

[ian 3,996]

 

A suggested letter text to your provider is shown below.

Oops! YorkshireLad6 forgot to include the stamp!