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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: 2, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:53AM
One of the reason that it might have occurred is not applicable to huge countries like the USA. However, where there are numerous smaller countries with significant price differentials in telecom services, having low roaming charges would encourage people to buy their phone in country A only to always use it in country B in order take advantage of the savings to be made. Having high roaming charges prevents this.
However, in the EU there are meant to be no barriers to such trade - all countries and companies in those countries compete against each other. The EU believes that roaming charges shouldn't be imposed simply as a method of market protection. If your running costs as a company are high they should be spread fairly amongst all those who use your infrastructure and not penalise those who are not your primary customer. People living in border areas are often hit with high prices simply because the strongest signal comes from a tower in a neighbouring country. Yes, it is possible to block this as a user but many only know how to turn it on and make a call. It stays switched on for most of its lifetime.
It's always my fault...