11c cap on roaming texts: new EU regulation

radiospan

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8010352.stm

New price caps for mobile phone use abroad are expected to be adopted by the European Parliament.

For the first time text messages and data roaming services, such as checking e-mails while abroad, will be included in EU-wide price caps.

The regulation has been approved by EU telecoms ministers and is expected to be passed when MEPs vote on Wednesday.

The cap for a "roaming" text will fall to 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents), from about 29 cents on average today.

The legislation is aimed at preventing "bill shock" - the nasty surprise many holidaymakers get when they return home and see how much they were charged for using their mobile phone abroad.

The BBC's Dominic Hughes in Strasbourg says one customer was hit with a bill of more than 39,000 euros (£34,000; $50,000) for downloading a single episode of a television show.

The new charges - excluding VAT - will take effect on 1 July, if MEPs back the regulation.

The cost of voice calls is also expected to fall again. The current price cap of 46 euro cents per minute for outgoing calls will fall to 43 cents in July and then 35 cents by July 2011.

The cap on calls received abroad will fall from 22 cents today to 19 cents in July and 11 cents by July 2011.

No price-fixing

In the first phase of the EU's mobile roaming legislation, the cost of voice calls was cut from 1 July 2007. The average cost of a roaming call before then was 1.15 euros per minute.

At the time phone companies were warned that legislation on texting and downloading data would follow unless they lowered costs voluntarily.

The idea is not to fix an EU-wide price, but to set a cap below which telecoms firms can compete by offering lower prices while still earning a reasonable return.

The cost of data roaming services is also set to come down. These include downloading and sending e-mails abroad from mobile phones.

The maximum from 1 July is set at 1 euro per megabyte, compared with an average of 1.68 euros today. It will fall to 50 euro cents by July 2011.

The price caps are for the rates that the foreign "host" operator charges the customer's home operator.

The initial proposals to cap data roaming charges were made by EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Last November the package of measures won the backing of EU telecoms ministers.

According to Commissioner Reding, traffic jumped 30-35% on voice calls after the EU cut the roaming charges by 50-60%.

Good news on the texts, especially considering that Meteor increased the cost of a text when roaming to 20-something cent I think?

Oafley Jones

We'll now have the strange case where it will cost less money to send a roaming text than one at home.

drunkmonkey

Oafley Jones wrote: »

We'll now have the strange case where it will cost less money to send a roaming text than one at home.

well it's 2cent to call someone in china on metero and I think and it's 30 cent to call the fella standing beside you...I could never get my head around the price difference..

towel401

The maximum from 1 July is set at 1 euro per megabyte, compared with an average of 1.68 euros today. It will fall to 50 euro cents by July 2011.

great news!

radiospan

unfortunately..

The price caps are for the rates that the foreign "host" operator charges the customer's home operator.

So Meteor (for example) can still charge as much as they like on top of this 11c per text limit?

MunsterCycling

plazzTT wrote: »

unfortunately..

So Meteor (for example) can still charge as much as they like on top of this 11c per text limit?

Yup.


Pity whoever wrote that article for the BBC doesn't know that the plural of cent is cent...

MC

IH77

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Yup.


Pity whoever wrote that article for the BBC doesn't know that the plural of cent is cent...

MC

It can be either I think, I have always said "cents"

radiospan

Yeah it can be either. The convention in English speaking countries outside of Ireland is "euros" and "cents"

MunsterCycling

Em no, the Commission decided on how it was to be referred to before the launch and the Euro and cent were the chosen plurals.

MC

IH77

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Em no, the Commission decided on how it was to be referred to before the launch and the Euro and cent were the chosen plurals.

MC

Ok, i don't know anything about the Commission but it sounds a bit ridiculous that on one hand I refer to something as dollars and cents, but then on the next I refer to it as "Euro" and "cent". Was this directed at Irish people only or for all Europeans?

radiospan

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Em no, the Commission decided on how it was to be referred to before the launch and the Euro and cent were the chosen plurals.

MC

Hehe this is gone way off topic. Yeah that was back in 1998 or something. They've eased all that now, it's only for official documents now.

"Common usage in the rest of the English-speaking world, where the euro is not the local currency, is to use the regular plurals."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_issues_concerning_the_euro#In_Australia.2C_Canada.2C_the_United_Kingdom.2C_and_the_USA

and in this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_issues_concerning_the_euro#Summary says it can be either.

MunsterCycling

It was directive for the English language and hasn't been changed or modified in any way.

Wikipedia.... Pfffttt.

MC

Sam Vimes

IH77 wrote: »

Ok, i don't know anything about the Commission but it sounds a bit ridiculous that on one hand I refer to something as dollars and cents, but then on the next I refer to it as "Euro" and "cent". Was this directed at Irish people only or for all Europeans?

The point of it was that not all countries pluralise with an s so they would have had to put loads of different versions of the word on the currency, eg euroai for Irish. It was easier to just rule that the plural was euro and that's why your money all says X euro and not X euros

MunsterCycling

And with that back on topic, this change comes to late for me, 24c for a text from the UK to home or the continent last week while away, what a fecking joke.

At least the networks did nothing and so the EU followed through on their threat to regulate prices for roaming, thanks Vivene Reading..


MC

Sam Vimes

You should use cabbage mobile. 2c texts worldwide

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MunsterCycling

Webtexts were used but had to use the Voda UK network a few times. Cabbage is running on the desktop right now but had no access to wifi where I was and as I always normally do (SIP on the N95 8GB with Blueface) I don't bother with a data plan.

MC

Sam Vimes

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Webtexts were used but had to use the Voda UK network a few times. Cabbage is running on the desktop right now but had no access to wifi where I was and as I always normally do (SIP on the N95 8GB with Blueface) I don't bother with a data plan.

MC

You know there's a mobile version too that goes on your phone right? You don't need a laptop or wifi to use it

MunsterCycling

Yup but I don't use data on my mobile as never have a need as am normally never out of contact with WiFi.

MC

Sam Vimes

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Yup but I don't use data on my mobile as never have a need as am normally never out of contact with WiFi.

MC

I see