On: Europe mostly ends mobile roaming fees from today

[matthewmacleod]

I don't think that the price of foreign calls will be affected – everything is simply charged at the home plan rate. Calling e.g. a French number will cost the same regardless of whether I am in France or the UK.

[martinald → matthewmacleod]

Incorrect. The regulation only applies when roaming.

To take three UK for example:

  Calling Spain from the UK: 46p/min
  Calling Spain from France while roaming: inclusive in minutes allowance, otherwise 3p/min.

I also checked Vodafone.de and it's the same thing - nearly €1/min if you're in Germany, or inclusive if you're roaming.

It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

[wila → martinald]

That is correct. Calling from your own EU country to any other country within the EU is still costing extra.

Technically it isn't roaming and the telcos happily charge you premium as it does not fall under that regulation. Many people will be confused by this bit.

[Symbiote → martinald]

> It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

It's not within their power to regulate these charges.

[matteuan → martinald]

Some years ago happened a similar thing with SMS. For example within Italy they costed 15 cents, but between countries 13cents because of the EU regulation.

[tpm → martinald]

EU mostly regulates inter-state commerce, not internal markets in countries, that's the job for the local regulators.

[matthewmacleod → martinald]

Ahah, I see. It's quite hard to see what's going on through the contract language!