European roaming charges now set by law -- and still high

The EU has mandated that, effective from today, European mobile carriers will have to offer a single rate for all of the EU, setting a maximum on the blisteringly high roaming charges. It's a cop-out, though: Orange and T-Mobile and Vodaphone and others have this legal fiction that Orange France and Orange UK are different companies and that an Orange UK customer should pay a premium to connect to Orange France's network. But in reality, Orange is perfectly capable of acting like a single company when it is in their interest. The Commission has set rates at about 10X what I pay for domestic use in the UK (still 60% less than I presently pay to roam) and says it will consider forcing lower rates in future.

"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end," said EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding in a statement. "Expect the new roaming rules to make it much cheaper to surf the web on your mobile while abroad in the EU."

After years of experiencing high prices for making phone calls abroad - or receiving them - the new tariffs are radically lower: sending a text message, for example, will drop from an average of 28 Euro cents to just 11 cents. The move should end the well-worn fear of opening a huge phone bill when returning from holiday or business abroad.

The new tariffs include the following maximum costs:

- making a call while abroad will cost 37p per minute
- receiving calls will cost a maximum of 17p per minute
- sending a text message from another country inside the EU will cost 10p
- Data transfers will also fall dramatically, with a megabyte of data costing 85p

Mobile roaming charges drop across Europe

• [toyg]

  Cory, did you see how Vodafone is spinning it as “we are so nice to our customers, we abolished roaming charges”? LOL.

  ERROR404 @5, your solution is completely unpractical. When one has to be able to contact you 24×7, are you gonna give him 16 numbers saying “try one of those, I’ll answer”?

  This directive is one good thing the EU is doing for us. I suspect they introduced it because the situation affected people who travel a lot across the EU, i.e. eurobureaucrats and other “global elite”…. but I’m not going to complain.

• [5alo]

  >3 posted by Cory Doctorow, July 1, 2009 1:06 AM
  >Eurozone != EU

  You are right, Cory, but take into account that euros are the most common legal tender in the European Union (325 million out of the 500 million citizens use it, compared to 60 million of UK). If you are reporting the rates for EU-citizens (like me), you would wish to use euros – after all, even the Brits would know the exchange rate by heart. On the other hand, most Europeans don’t know the exchange rate of pound by heart.

  If you are talking to your international audience, and mainly Americans, you would wish to use dollars. You might also have given more examples of how the prices have fallen because of this decision. Right now, blogpost isn’t very informative. We are forced to Google the exchange rates and examples from somewhere else.

  I don’t know how your readership divides geographically, but I highly suspect that United Kingdom is not the home to the majority of your readers.

  Forgive me for writing this; I usually enjoy your posts far more often than your co-writers (and they are excellent as well). Questions of metric/imperial units and the legal tender used in these posts just leaves something to be desired.

• [Anonymous]

  Hi Stupidly because I had other things on my mind I forgot to ask T mobile there recieving calls roaming tariffs.Without making a single call but recieving plenty of calls from the uk to South Africa. Imagine my shock that after a two week holiday I find myself having to pay 435 pounds.
  I want to cancel my contract which has thankfully come to an end. But they comfort me with the thought of I am a loyal customer…..WHATEVER

• [Anonymous]

  Great (or at least a good start), but don’t use “European” as a synonym for “EU”! It’s not the same…because I assume I still can’t call Norway, Switzerland or Ukraine at those prices? If I had any reason to that, that is. I wish!

  ps: this is coming from someone who is totally pro-EU (in theory), but using “European” when you mean “EU” sounds arrogant, as if non-EU European countries are negligible.

• [chillitom]

  And the reason the rates are still so high?? British MP Margaret Hodge

• [Zayfod]

  Ah so this would be why my roaming charges went UP a few weeks ago. T-Mobile are slowly removing my 121 pay-as-you-go plan piece by piece.

• [caffeine addict]

  But these figures are maximum amounts not minimum ones. Sure, a lot of the time they’ll be the same thing, but Vodafone are doing this passport thing where you can use your phon over any European Vodafone network for your local call costs…

• [zuzu]

  Or do what a mate of mine does when ever he has to come to the UK from Sweden, buy a local SIM card. Sound like a lot of hassle? maybe but it is still ten times cheaper than the new roaming charges.

  Exactly! If you’re frequently moving between the UK and France, get a Simore dual-SIM card holder for your mobile.

  However, this situation is still vexing:

  It’s a cop-out, though: Orange and T-Mobile and Vodaphone and others have this legal fiction that Orange France and Orange UK are different companies and that an Orange UK customer should pay a premium to connect to Orange France’s network. But in reality, Orange is perfectly capable of acting like a single company when it is in their interest.

  Funny how governments and big business work together to deny individuals the benefits of transnationalism / global trade.

• [bolamig]

  And back in the USA… I just noticed that out of state roaming charges have been completely eliminated by all the major plans from the big carriers. It does seem like our networked age is slowly and steadily chipping away at businesses who make money by trapping people into unexpected charges.

• [Andrew Denny]

  What about ‘roaming’ for 0845/0870 and other national/premium rate numbers?

  I have a phone contract that ostensibly covers all inland calls, but they charge a healthy extra whack to call up these national numbers.

  And every time I txt a Tweet, T-Mobile surcharges me 17p even though Twitter’s text no. is a local one. That feels like roaming to me, even tho it’s in the UK.

• [caffeine addict]

  @ andrew denny – are you texting to 07624801423 or a different number? If it’s that one, then t-mobile are seriously out of order… Orange treat it as a normal mobile phone…

• [JimXugle]

  *muttering to himslef*
  More competition in the mobile market place would have eventually lead one company to sign a mutuality agreement with a foreign carrier, thus opening the floodgates to similar agreements.
  */muttering*

• [Anonymous]

  Be happy you of the Euro Confederation. I live in Canada where the wireless providers are contemplating providing every customer with a free vibrator, just to let you know you are f***** if you use their services.

• [Anonymous]

  £ or €? Actually the roaming calls cap in the UK is 42.78p (incl VAT) for calls made from abroad and 18.9p (incl VAT) for calls received. And the 85p per 1MB data transfer is the maximum price that can be charged in between operators and the European Commission just hopes that the operators will pass the saving on to the customers. There is an interesting debate on roaming on the Facebook page “Sea, Sun and SMS” which is actually moderated by EU people. http://tinyurl.com/seasunsms

• [silvestre]

  What is a “p” since in EU we have cents [c]…?

• [Cory Doctorow]

  No, in the EU, we have cents, two kinds of kroner, pounds sterling, and more than a few Eastern European currencies.

• [Cory Doctorow]

  Eurozone != EU

• [pKp]

  Hey, wasn’t it the same person who made compulsory the use of mini-usb for charging cellphones and other devices ?

  Well, it certainly feels good to see the EU doing something useful for once :)

• [Anonymous]

  The crime is NOT the cost. The real evil is how carriers force you to predict the future and pick some roaming plan when you have no idea what you’ll need. Here’s a novel idea, how about ENCOURAGING use by telling customers, “Don’t worry” we’ll put you on the cheapest plan based on your usage at the end of the month. Those that want to be frugal will still be careful and not tax the system (if that really matters anyway), and those that really want to use more data will be comfortable knowing that, though it will be expensive, they won’t be paying more than they should. The current system puts most users in mortal fear of using roaming data. Is that REALLY the mindset that a carrier wants to encourage? Carriers are leaving money on the table with these billing practices. I hate having to be clairvoyant to get a fair cell rate.

• [error404]

  Or do what a mate of mine does when ever he has to come to the UK from Sweden, buy a local SIM card.

  A pay as you go SIM card for the UK can be had for buttons and he just switches them over.

  Sound like a lot of hassle? maybe but it is still ten times cheaper than the new roaming charges.

• [error404]

  … that reads like he buys a new SIM every time, he doesn’t he just has the one.