Excessive Mobile Roaming Charges – The Latest
A year after the European Commission stepped in to introduce the Eurotariff, limiting the cost of overseas (roaming) call charges for European consumers, T-Mobile have announced they are slashing the cost of mobile internet (data roaming) charges by 80% from £7.50 per megabyte to just £1.50. In addition, they are also set to reduce the cost of text messaging from 40p to 25p. This follows O2’s announcement earlier this year that they would be substantially cutting the cost of mobile data charges to their Pay/Go customers.
Although the Eurotariff for overseas call charges did not affect the cost of texting and mobile web browsing when it was initially introduced, network operators have been under continued pressure from both Brussels and Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, to reduce their charges in other areas. For example, the cost of sending a text message in the UK costs an average of 5.6p compared with 21p overseas, despite there being little additional cost to the network provider. Ofcom are also lobbying the operators to stop the unfair practice of charging consumers a full minute of roaming for what may only be a 20 second conversation.
The European Commission, spearheaded by Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information, Society and Media has also pushed for the introduction of an “EU roaming package”, allowing consumers to download data across Europe for effectively the same price as they could in the UK.
Earlier this year, a July 1 2008 deadline was imposed for voluntary reductions in data roaming charges, with the threat of further European regulation in the form of price caps if that deadline was not met. But with only O2, Orange and T-Mobile having announced price cuts, and a good deal of resistance from the industry in general, it looks inevitable that Europe will be forced to step in once again.
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I still find it difficult to believe that phone companies cannot include calls within European countries as part of a monthly contract bundle. If you live in India you can call anywhere in the country for a fraction of the price per minuite that we pay in Europe. Is it not possible to limit you to a distance from the cell you connect to and the destination cell and have those calls within your contract. If outside , say, 5000Km you pay an additional charge or have a 1 min call deducts 2 mins of you allocated ammount. This must be possible and would be fairer for calls, data and texts..
I have been struggling with the roaming charges abroad although mainly for calls, not only calling from abroad but also charges for calling abroad whilst in the UK. Fortunately io came across this great website http://www.incahoot.com that are selling a bespoke tariff of 6500 minutes of which most of them will cover international calls anywhere in the world. and all for only £18 a month including handset. Initially i was skeptical as i thought there were a catch there somewhere, but there isn’t. Go and have a look yourself, i have now more or less a fixed cost for my mobile and many of my friends and colleagues have followed. Happy days! Incahoot is a membership site, but it is still free to register, i did and will be saving close to £200 pounds on my annual bill compared with my previous price plan