Roaming costs to be progressively capped

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

No. Wrong, totally wrong.

 

The maximum a European based provider can charge their customer for sending an SMS to a mobile of another European provider while roaming outside of their home country is 11cents plus VAT. No additional charges allowed. The carriers are not "making sending SMS form abroad cheaper" voluntarily - they are being forced to adhere to these limits by European Directive ("Regulation (EC) No 717/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2007 on roaming on public mobile telephone networks within the Community and amending Directive 2002/21/EC"). This regulation has been pushing roaming call prices down since 2007 but only affects SMS roaming from today. From July 1st 2010 maximum charges for SMS roaming will be further limited to 9cents (+VAT).

 

But you are right - roaming prices for SMS will in many cases be less than for an SMS sent while in the home country and herein lies the anomaly which some hope will put further pressure on the providers to reduce domestic pricing. They are not (currently) being forced to do this, however.

 

The EU has determined that these roaming charges remain a reasonable business proposition on the basis of information presented to them during their deliberations. You can deduce from this that many providers are essentially ripping off the consumer with the higher domestic charges they impose. At the end of the day it was this "rip-off" culture and high profits that stimulated the European regulation in the first place.

[Hutcho 2,227]

Seems crazy that it will be cheaper to send an SMS outside the country rather than inside it... though I guess that just shows how much we're being ripped off right now..

[minga 733]

The average cost for the operator for an SMS is about 1-2 cents.

[stirliz 0]

It is many times less. How much does it cost you to send a 160 byte message (Ok with header etc, let it be 1Kb) to anyone how has internet? That's probably the amount they will also pay. Absurd is that me sending sms from my homecountry (Armenia) to Germany costs 4-8 times less than to send the same sms from Germany to Germany.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

Today heralds the next step in the EU-enforced reduction in roaming prices. From today you will not pay more than 46.41cents/minute (previous maximum was 51.17cents/min) when using your German phone elsehwere in the EU to make a call to another EU country and not more than 17.85cents/min (previously 22.61cents/min) to receive a call while roaming. SMS prices remain at a maximum of 13.1cents/SMS (paradoxically still 30% less than the 19% per SMS for messages within Germany charged on many contracts). These limits apply to all (European) providers on all contracts (prepaid or postpaid). On first logging into a foreign network your network provider must send you an SMS to warn you of your roaming prices.

 

A new change is also a cap on roaming charges for data traffic when travelling which has resulted in many expensive billing shocks for people who would otherwise have a domestic flatrate when using mobile data at home. Unless you advise your provider otherwise you will not be able to exceed roaming data costs above €59.50. When your roaming data usage reaches €47.60 (80% of €59.50) your provider must send you an SMS to warn you of your usage so far and approaching limit. O2 will apply this ruling differently - after you exceed the cost limit you will not be blocked from data traffic, but your transfer rate will be restricted to 64kB/s after you use 30MB of data and 2kB/s (!) after 200MB

 

Finally the double charge of a call to a mailbox when abroad (first the cost to relay to your foreign location, then the cost to send it back to your home mailbox if you are not reachable, reject, or don't answer the call) will be eliminated. You can now not be charged more than the cost of a domestic diversion (which for many contracts is nothing to a mailbox)

 

Note that if you have specifically agreed to alternative roaming charges with your provider these will still apply, even if they exceed the EU limits. In this case you need to cancel that agreement to enjoy the new limits.

[godz_magnum_opus 269]

An SMS 5 mins ago from my service provider just confirmed the same!

Hmm.. but the 13 cents per SMS while on roaming versus 19 cents when inside Germany is indeed pretty paradoxical! :blink:

[chumbawumba 38]

Is it not as of 1/7/2011 that we now have the new "Eurotariff", ie. price caps.

 

• 35c/m for making a call while roaming in EU
  
• 10c/m for receiving a call while roaming in EU
  

 

seems to have gone quite quietly, I assume it will affect all providers? As in those that also sit on others networks (Alice, 1&1, etc..)

[minga 733]

The rates are applicable to all operators within EU. VAT will be added to the rates mentioned above.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

As I began this thread and had also been updating it over the years, it was remiss of me not to continue the information stream.

 

It is indeed true that roaming charges have been further reduced by European decree since July 1st, 2011. For German customers this means the maximum they pay while outside of the country is now 41cents/minute to make calls and 13cents/minute to receive calls. Sending SMS stays at maximum 13 cents/message, incoming messages are free and data transfer may cost no more than 59cents/Mb, maximum 59€ (all prices inc. MwSt/VAT). As a result roaming charges are now around 75% cheaper than the were 7 years ago when the EU commission invited providers to reduce charges, then subsequently enforced the limits. While these are maximum charges, few providers charge less, and some (like Aldi) make a big thing of the reduction as if it were a favour to their customers. All German providers (or distributors, or re-sellers) must apply these limits to all their contracts, whether pre-paid or post-paid unless otherwise agreed with their customers (see below)

 

These maximum charges will stay in force until July 1st, 2012, by which time the EU plans to have decided on further reductions, with an ultimate goal of parity with domestic charges by 2015. A provisional proposal is expected in the next week or so.

 

Note that providers are allowed to reach alternate agreements with their customers which can override these limits. For example Vodafone have an add-on where the customer pays 29cents/minute to call Germany with a connection cost of 75cents/call, so save 12 cents a call over the European limits, but only make any real savings if a single call is 7 or more minutes long - a 2 minute call would actually cost 1.33€ - an average of over 66cents/minute!

 

For many (especially post-paid) contracts the cost of sending an SMS when abroad is less than when at home.

 

The downside of the new regulations is a loss of revenue for the operators who made enormous profit from inflated roaming charges meaning it may be that domestic charges may have to increase to compensate. This has already happened in UK where Orange and Vodafone have recently increased call and SMS charges by between 20 and 25%. It's less likely to happen in Germany, as charges for inter-network transfers between operators dropped from around 8 cents/minute to 4 cents/minute earlier this year but very few actual call charges have gone down as a result.

[Guest]

Do you think that governments are not ready to give up control of their telecom networks and regulations or is it purely money driven?

 

I have often wondered why one provider has not been able to waive roaming and gain market share. Looking at Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, or Orange, they have partners in some European countries and it would seem that they could cut the roaming charges or set up a special plan.

 

As a T-Mobile customer, i would like to use my phone when crossing the Polish border and since Telekom has or had a partner in Poland, it should not be a problem. I have heard that Vodafone had an arrangement for its UK customers in Spain.

 

As far as I know, there are no roaming charges in the US and it came about early in the noughties when several carriers offered a national footprint.

 

It shouldn't be so difficult to do in the EU.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

The governments don't control the networks, they are, in the main, privately owned. The EU thinks roaming charges are a rip-off and possibly a cartel, so who are we to disagree?

The US have a different business model where the called party pays in part for the call which is roaming under another name, event when on your own network.

[eean 165]

well no, the big difference in the US is that we do have US carriers. There are no European carriers, just different national carriers (some of which confusingly have the same name).

 

There are actually some regional carriers in the US. I used to have a cheapo plan that was roaming outside of Iowa. But I could've paid a bit more and gotten a nationwide plan since the regional operators are all partnered with one of the big four. Europe has no equivalent to the big four.

[Guest]

 

The governments don't control the networks, they are, in the main, privately owned.

 

True. I should have written *regulatory* control.

 

Truncation charges are probably different for Poland and Czech for example and that might be a function of taxation, regulation, etc.

 

My colleagues insist that this is just a gravy train which will continue until one of the established carriers or a new carriers breaks ranks and tries to win business based on offering a Euro-wide footprint without roaming charges.

[doodle 97]

Very unlikely that a reduction in roaming rates would increase domestic prices, as people would use roaming services to a much greater extent. The problem with roaming is that there is at present no incentive for phone companies to reduce the charges they charge the domestic provider, as there is no mechanism to force the domestic provider to pass this saving onto the customer. And on top of that cross-border companies (i.e. Vodafone) are able to justify high roaming charges no doubt on the back of internal legal advice that reducing their charges if people roam onto Vodafone but not onto other networks would be a distortion of competition...

[doodle 97]

Data - 1.19EUR/MB

 

still...ouch. No youtube abroad.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

 

Very unlikely that a reduction in roaming rates would increase domestic prices, as people would use roaming services to a much greater extent.

 

That's exactly what is currently happening in UK where both Orange and Vodafone have recently increased their charges at home.

High costs used to be related to high network connection charges (charges for transferring a call between networks, whether national or international) when the technology and the market was new. Those charges are now substantially less (in Germany recently halved between domestic carriers). There is really no need for the carriers to continue to enforce their high charges, but they are accused of creating a cartel and keeping costs high to maintain profits (which they say they need to bid for network space on new networks). The EU and many domestic watchdogs see this as a breach of consumer protection and are acting accordingly. It's likely that future deliberations will work to an enforced parity between roaming and domestic charges, to the deficit of profits, which may need to be realised elsewhere if they are to be maintained at current levels. Nobody really wins except the shareholders.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

After 9 months of discussion the next stage of the progressive cap on extortionate roaming charges was finally agreed by the EU commission today and should come into force by July 1st this year in time for the holidays.

Under the proposals, calls to other European destinations while roaming within the EU will cost a maximum of 35.5cents/min including VAT (current statutory maximum is 41.7cent), incoming calls 9.52cents/min (currently 13cents/min), text messages will be capped at 10.71cents (currently 13.9cents) and mobile internet at 83.3cents per Megabyte of data (currently 1.19€/Mb).

 

In 2013 there will be further reductions for outgoing calls to 28.6cent/minute and in 2014 to 22,6cent/min

 

The ultimate goal is to reach parity with domestic calls by 2016

 

From 2014 phone owners will be allowed to make deals with local providers in each country to secure special rates while roaming in their country.

[YorkshireLad6 7,152]

From tomorrow (July 1st, 2013) following the next step in enforced reduction in roaming charges, maximum costs while abroad (but in Europe) will be:

 

• Outgoing calls: 0.29€/minute (previously 0.34€)
• Incoming calls: 0.08€/minute (0.09€)
• SMS: 0.9€ (0.10€)
• Data: 0.54€/MByte (0.83€)

 

The EU Commission will meet again in the next few weeks with a goal to eliminate roaming charges completely by this time next year. Despite resistance from the operators, it seems likely that this will be achieved although how it will be implemented remains questionable as many operators do not offer services in all countries, so do have to pay a fee to other operators to relay their calls.