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girlwhowaspluggedout writes:
"The European Commission reports that, fearing high roaming charges, many EU citizens forgo the use of their mobile phones outside their home country. According to a survey done by the Commission (pdf), when travelling to another EU country, 90% of all EU citizens limit their e-mail use, 47% do not use their mobile internet connection, 33% never place calls, 25% do not text, and a staggering 28% simply turn off their mobile phones.
Roaming charges, the Commission suggests, are hurting the fledgling EU app sector. In trying to avoid paying data premiums, travelers limit their use of data-heavy apps, like travel guides, maps, and photo applications. Frequent travelers are even more likely to turn-off their phones, perhaps due to being better informed about the costs of data roaming.
The Commission reports that data roaming use across the EU has increased by 1500% since the introduction of price caps in 2008. It suggests that by eliminating all roaming charges, mobile providers will gain a further 300 million customers. These findings give further support to regulations proposed by the Commission that will create a single mobile phone market throughout the EU, enabling all customers to enjoy domestic rates when travelling within the EU."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Popeidol on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:20PM
The EU has had capped roaming prices - including data roaming - and has been steadily reducing those prices over a number of years. The proposed regulation linked to in the article is the final logical step in that plan. Here's a quick table of how they've changed over time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roamin g_regulations#Prices [wikipedia.org]
I'm assuming they've done it gradually so as to get carriers used to the idea. Now they're facing dramatically reduced income from roaming charges regardless, they have a lot less to lose and a lot to gain from a single EU-wide mobile market.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by brocksampson on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:02AM
Before those caps roaming actually worked better with some carriers because you could roam on a pre-paid SIM. That way, you could charge it up before a trip and then be sure that you won't spend more than what you put on it. After the caps went into effect, carriers stopped allowing pre-paid SIMs to roam. Now every carrier has a different roaming policy, different billing, and different ways of activating roaming. It's infuriating. I can't wait for the whole concept to go away. It is just insane that the second I cross a border I have to be careful about loading a map, lest I wind up with EUR 60 added to my monthly bill... travelling is the one situation in which I actually need a map with GPS! (At least it's not as bad as traveling to the US, which apparently no longer has the concept of pre-paid SIMs with data service.)
(Score: 2, Informative) by elf on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:43AM
By 2016 they are looking to remove the roaming charges altogether, you would just use the same tarrif in your home country at any country in the EU
http://www.zdnet.com/europe-sets-2016-deadline-for -end-to-all-mobile-roaming-charges-7000020598/ [zdnet.com]