EU Negotiators Agreement on Roaming Charges from June 2017

kerry4sam

Mod Note:

I saw on our EU Commission site about an agreement made on Roaming Charges :

End of roaming charges: EU negotiators agreed on wholesale prices, the final piece to make it happen

Info was seen here.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

da_hambo

http://m.independent.ie/business/technology/news/going-abroad-irish-phone-users-fork-out-20-more-for-roaming-35433476.html

Does this open the floodgates for cheap plans from other countries?

Eg buy a sim bill plan from Estonia and use it permanently in Ireland if it saves money? I hope so.

AngryLips

No, because there is a requirement that the user lives in the home country of the network in question. The EU did mandate how this would be defined but, due to the uproar this caused because people were saying that it placed restrictions on true free roaming across Europe, the EU then backtracked and said they'd leave the question for the individual networks to define ...which, in my opinion, is a step backwards. The original hoopla was totally overblown as far as I'm concerned

kerry4sam

Just an FYI Update

Free roaming: Parliament clears final hurdle. From 15 June same cost at home & while travelling in other EU country.

Taken from here.

Parliament removed the final hurdle - wholesale price caps - by endorsing an informal deal on them, already informally agreed with the Council, by 549 votes to 27and 50 abstentions.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

More Info here

kerry4sam

https://twitter.com/EP_President/status/875311480731774978

Thanks,
kerry4sam

kerry4sam

https://twitter.com/EU_Commission/status/875296116207751169

Thanks,
kerry4sam

k123456

A question for anyone that has been abroad in the EU recently.  Have you noticed any roaming fees, when using phone for data or calls
What happens if your phone "latches " onto to another network, other than your preferred network

https://www.google.com/search?q=roaming+fees+abolished&oq=roaming+fees+a&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.6512j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I am on Three Ireland, and will be shortly using Google Maps with data switched on (in France) , don't want to see a large bill on my return

Fred Swanson

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coylemj

k123456 wrote: »

A question for anyone that has been abroad in the EU recently.  Have you noticed any roaming fees, when using phone for data or calls
What happens if your phone "latches " onto to another network, other than your preferred network

Check your network's website, unless they instruct you to manually select a specific network in France, you can assume that it doesn't matter or that your phone will stay on the preferred network.

k123456 wrote: »

I am on Three Ireland, and will be shortly using Google Maps with data switched on (in France) , don't want to see a large bill on my return

Consider downloading offline maps before you go to cover the areas you'll be travelling in. Before you do this, change the settings in Google Maps to store the offline maps on your (microSD) memory card - saves phone memory. Make sure that it's set to only download updates over wi-fi.

RoYoBo

I have 'Preferred Network' ticked on my phone - have only been in UK since the roaming change and all has worked perfectly. with no extra charges.

Well worth downloading the relevant map onto the phone's SD card as coylemj said. You might find yourself in an area with poor network coverage, or even run out of data. I find Here maps good, too.

Ditto for Spotify - having a downloaded playlist or two is worth it when travelling. Much of the data allowances are reduced in the EU - think 3 only allows a percentage of what you have at home? Vodafone lets you use it all.

theteal

No charges but I was working in Paris last week and my data signal was continually dropping. Multiple times each day I'd need to use uber or hotspot etc on my phone and no data signal. Sometimes a restart fixed it but not always. Phone is fine since back in the UK.

suicide_circus

Yeah was in eastern Europe recently, no roaming charges was great but data signal seemed to drop quite often.

scudzilla

theteal wrote: »

No charges but I was working in Paris last week and my data signal was continually dropping. Multiple times each day I'd need to use uber or hotspot etc on my phone and no data signal. Sometimes a restart fixed it but not always. Phone is fine since back in the UK.

suicide_circus wrote: »

Yeah was in eastern Europe recently, no roaming charges was great but data signal seemed to drop quite often.

Guessing the dropping of signal is due to the irish network piggybacking off a local network, when bandwidth is slim then the visiting signal is bumped/reduced.

George Sunsnow

Let's be very clear
The law is very clear
Roaming in the EU is gone
There are fair usage limits on data the lowest of which is 5 gigs on the €20 top up deal
My business bill pay fup on three is 8 gigs
Ask them what's yours
Calls and texts are the same as at home
You can even call French numbers while you are in France Using your home allowance
If you've unlimited calls in Ireland for example you'll have unlimited in France including calls to French numbers while there that would be charged international if you ran them from at home


Three cannot charge you extra no matter what network you go on in France

George Sunsnow

RoYoBo wrote: »

I have 'Preferred Network' ticked on my phone - have only been in UK since the roaming change and all has worked perfectly. with no extra charges.

Well worth downloading the relevant map onto the phone's SD card as coylemj said. You might find yourself in an area with poor network coverage, or even run out of data. I find Here maps good, too.

Ditto for Spotify - having a downloaded playlist or two is worth it when travelling. Much of the data allowances are reduced in the EU - think 3 only allows a percentage of what you have at home? Vodafone lets you use it all.

There's actually no difference between three and Vodafone Irl on data in the EU
Yes Vodafone let you use all your Irish allowance but they mostly only give their customers 5gb anyway so that's all you'd have in the EU whereas three give a minimum of 5 gigs

RoYoBo

George Sunsnow wrote: »

There's actually no difference between three and Vodafone Irl on data in the EU
Yes Vodafone let you use all your Irish allowance but they mostly only give their customers 5gb anyway so that's all you'd have in the EU whereas three give a minimum of 5 gigs

I found 3 awful for roaming data even before the change in the law. I might have seemingly had plenty available, but it was so slow it was unusable (both here at home and in Spain). Vodafone seems to be a lot better - find it excellent at home and (so far) in the UK.

And Vodafone X has a great data allowance of 20gb for €20 ... all of which can be used in the EU.

k123456

Thanks form the replies folks,

AngryLips

George Sunsnow wrote: »

There's actually no difference between three and Vodafone Irl on data in the EU
Yes Vodafone let you use all your Irish allowance but they mostly only give their customers 5gb anyway so that's all you'd have in the EU whereas three give a minimum of 5 gigs

They give more than 5gb. 20gb on their student deal and average 15gb on billpay

George Sunsnow

AngryLips wrote: »

They give more than 5gb. 20gb on their student deal and average 15gb on billpay

The voda prepay plans are all 5 gigs on their site
Bill pay is also 5 gigs for €40 pm

The 15 gig plans are €60 and €80 pm without a phone
Madness when 2 other networks are unlimited for a third of that

I pay 25 pm ex vat business sim only unlimited everything
They allow me 8 gigs of data in the EU

I don't know the voda student plans but they'd want to be cheap!

RoYoBo

The student deal is €20 for 20gbs of data - also has options for free Spotify, Sport, unlimited weekends, call minutes etc. It's Vodafone X and there's a thread here on Boards about it.

Vodafone also has a PAYG offer of €20 that includes 5gbs of data - you keep €10 of your credit. A €15 add-on buys you another 5gbs of data - using the €10 credit plus €5 more, means you have 10gbs of data and the calls/texts for a total of €25 per month.

You can use the entirety of your 10gbs roaming if you want, but the biggest part of the deal IMO is that Vodafone has far and away the better coverage nationally and internationally and is much faster and more stable both home and away.

I had a few Three network sims (both ie and uk) in the recent past and the speed and coverage was abysmal. Seemed like great value until you wanted to actually use the data! Maybe where you are it has good coverage, but if you do any kind of travelling here or abroad, it's horribly inadequate.

In my home, for example, I get minimal Three coverage when I stand at my bedroom window only and practically nothing elsewhere in the house! I've never lost coverage with Vodafone yet. Not lauding them by any means, but they're the best of a bad lot IMO

AngryLips

George Sunsnow wrote: »

The voda prepay plans are all 5 gigs on their site
Bill pay is also 5 gigs for €40 pm

I'm just pointing out that your comment about there being no difference between VF and 3 for roaming to be completely incorrect, because Vodafone let you use your full data allowance and 3 don't. You've just intentionally attempted to mislead everyone here by making an apples and oranges comparison specific to two of their prepay plans.

George Sunsnow

Ok ok ok ,I should have said practically the same Boards.ie and its pedantry:D
That's a student deal,what are the non students supposed to do?
Most Voda customers won't be aware of the top up add on you mention but then most won't need it
Point taken though
Their Bill pay customers are paying 60 and €80 pm from what I can see for similar data to that student offer

Regarding the quality of service abroad
Roaming means you can use all networks so there should be absolutely no difference in service in the EU
But ostensibly there is eg look at the Tesco mobile forum
I've found no problem at all on three abroad
Problems are illegal and need referral to comreg after a complaint to your service provider

Voda allows you 4G though which three don't
They also win on outside the EU roaming,but that's still expensive,just other networks are way more expensive

I won't comment on threes coverage nationally versus Vodafone because the latter does definitely have less black spots but three where they are good they are just as good as voda
I'm getting 4G + in Arklow for instance and speeds of up to 150Mb
Anyway thread starter has been answered,My point really was just on how roaming is an every network service despite what three say
If I had a guess I'd say their 'preferred ' networks are just changing them less

RoYoBo

George Sunsnow wrote: »

Ok
That's a student deal,what are the non students supposed to do?

Have a look at that thread I mentioned - it might be worth your while

George Sunsnow

I doubt it
Even my young lads are aul lads now

RoYoBo

George Sunsnow wrote: »

I doubt it
Even my young lads are aul lads now

As are mine ... and I have it! Seriously, have a look!

George Sunsnow

To be honest I am in a Vodafone black spot,it wouldn't touch 3 here
I've a PAYG voda alright for outside eu so I might try X on that if I'm ever going

One of our three phones was roaming in Holland all last month with perfect data speeds on 3G only but 4G in Ams funnily enough

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Blacktie.

There's no roamijg charges in the EU. As far as I know it should work fine with Internet. With Google maps you can just pre download the area you'll be in if needed.

Kintarō Hattori

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You can download the area you want to traverse and it'll work offline.

cruizer101

Google maps has an option to download maps for offline use so you wouldn't need to use your data.
Most phone plans these days have decent enough roaming data included mind, some you can buy extra bundles so you could look into that too.

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maximoose

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If you hit menu you should see an option for "Offline Maps", you can add areas in there.

I've used google maps for driving around Spain and France, works great no issues for me.

cruizer101

Menu has an option called Offline maps when you go in there it gets you to select the area. More of you are driving across a lot of Europe it could be big enough

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acer911

....... wrote: »

How?

I have tried but I am not getting a Download link.

As above, there are no roaming charges in EU now, although you do have an allowance, which is usually generous! I have used it on multiple personal and work trips for driving etc and never had an issue with going near allowances etc!

Kintarō Hattori

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You can also select an area you want covered as selecting a whole country might take up a lot of storage space.

rossie1977

I have the here navigation app on my windows phone and it works without internet connection and works in nearly every country I have been to except China.

There is also a here drive app which does cost money abroad.

emeldc

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OR

Just select the place you want to go to, press start/go and then switch off your mobile data. The map continues to work just fine. It also means your mobile data allowance is not being used up in the background on other apps.

degsie

You can download maps for offline viewing.

abarkie

Use Here maps & download country first & then turn data off

listermint

Download Sygic Maps, you may have to pay for it depending on version, But it has fantastic offline support and an easy to use interface.

Have used this in various form for years.

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Del2005

emeldc wrote: »

OR

Just select the place you want to go to, press start/go and then switch off your mobile data. The map continues to work just fine. It also means your mobile data allowance is not being used up in the background on other apps.

The advantage of keeping mobile data on is that Google will reroute you around traffic jams. It's bad enough sitting in a traffic jam on the way to work never mind on your holidays.

ifElseThen

Although there are no roaming charges, I'm fairly certain the data usage is throttled when you are roaming. O2 admitted doing this.

G_R

Anytime I've been abroad within the EU since the free data roaming came in I've never had an issue with throttling or coming anywhere near my data allowance.

Was wondering how I ever managed before it on my last trip!

I'm with eir btw

ifElseThen

Yeah I was with Meteor these last few years and the data was very slow in West France. That ensured I didn't come near to the 7GB limit

Del2005

ifElseThen wrote: »

Although there are no roaming charges, I'm fairly certain the data usage is throttled when you are roaming. O2 admitted doing this.

IIRC with 3 you don't get 4g when roaming. If you download the maps hand you'll use very little data when using them.

conor_mc

Might have changed since last summer, but even with offline maps, I needed to enable data to get voice turn-by-turn directions. Data usage was minimal though.

CelticRambler

I wouldn't be a great fan of Google Maps, and genererally use the "Navigator" app for all my European travel, with maps for about ten different countries stored on the phone's SD card. Last weekend, though, I found myself going the wrong way down a mountain in Switzerland when I should have been going up, and Navigator couldn't find the roads/lanes to take me to where I was going. Google did, over a 3G tablet connection, and according to the tablet's data usage record, it only downloaded 8MB.

My (French) SIM treats Switzerland like EU, so that was no bother but my phone's Irish Three SIM warned me that I was in high-charge territory. Something to be aware of if you're planning to drive anywhere near the Swiss border.

munchkin_utd

ifElseThen wrote: »

Yeah I was with Meteor these last few years and the data was very slow in West France. That ensured I didn't come near to the 7GB limit

thats a VERY good point.

On the 1000s of km of motorways the network coverage can be patchy at times so having the maps downloaded and only rely on data for traffic would be a good idea.

mgbgt1978

+1 for Sygic. The Trial version is for 7 days (from date of installation), but all you really lose after the 7 days is the voice instructions.
They usually have offers where you can buy the full version for €19.99 or so which gives you lifetime Map updates, etc.
Great interface and quite easy to use. You chose which countries you want to download and it's all offline after that.

BTW also has lane guidance and speed limit warnings, etc.
Just for the craic I tried it alongside Here and a Garmin SatNav around both London and Paris, and in fairness Sygic always gave a better route when there were multiple options.
The main issue with offline google maps is that you can only download a limited size of map (although you can download as many as you like) which means that even for Ireland you need at least 2 sections to cover the entire Country.