What's the definition of a heatsink for a hot journalist? Answer: the local boozer
THE EUROPEAN UNION has drafted a plan to cap mobile roaming rates for countries in the EU.
Under the plan, European telcos will be given a series of ceilings for roaming charges billed on mobile services.
Starting on 1 July 2009 - if the plan is approved -incoming calls will be capped at a rate of €0.43 per minute. That rate will drop to €0.39 in 2010 and €0.35 by 1 July 2011.
An EU spokesman halied the deal as, "a victory for European consumers and for the European single market".
Council of Ministers Parliament rapporteur Adina-Ioana Vălean said he was hopeful that "all parties will endorse a concrete first-reading agreement so that European consumers can fully benefit from this new regulation by the beginning of summer."
The law woiuld not provide a minimum price for the charges, so service providers will be free to adjust rates under the cap as they see fit. The law requires providers to charge by the second, but an automatic 30-second minimum will be allowed.
Charges on data transfers will be capped at €1 per megabyte this year and cut to €0.50 by 2011.
The law also calls for a €50 'sticker shock' limit on data roaming charges, and will require carriers to warn customers if a mobile data limit is being reached. µ
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You guys across the pond pay dearly for cell phones. At least seems that way. We in the USA pay too much too but roaming is almost a thing of the past as far as I can tell. But then again I hardly use a phone.
The US is one country, this is about the roaming costs when you travel abroad. I'm pretty sure our rates are much better than those you pay when you are in Canada or Mexico.
Within countries our rates are pretty comparable to US plans, we might even have better deals on data.
As GM said, this is internationally speaking. I pay 10euro/month here in Holland for unlimited access of up to 1mbit/s (which is being increased to 7 and later on to 28 in a few years)
The american above thinks roaming is crossing onto another state!!!!!!! omfg!!!!
US is also the only country (that know of) where users pay for incoming calls. This is how the US telcos make up for lost income elsewhere. US telcos must love that they fleece people like you, and even manage to brainwash you into bragging that they don't. Wow!
I'm not brainwashed. As I stated, I do not use the cell phone much. I actually use a pay as you go cell phone because I hardly ever use it. I loath the sight of people driving while talking, not for safety but because many are just dweebs. You see the cell phone at the ear mostly with people in expensive cars as if they are so busy with their lives, enjoy fools is all I can say. I did not mean to make you think I was bragging. If I was bragging you would know :-)
Whats that face reflected in the Nokia's screen? It gave me a nasty fright whatever it is!
A picture of a baby? How dark is your monitor dude?
The actual costs for cell phone calls are extremely low. In Europe, it costs the operators about 1 to 1.5 cents per minute (that's a hard Euro cent, though). Customers pay about 20 to 30 cents WITHOUT roaming charges, plus the monthly fee, unless they pay more for the monthly fee. Land-line costs are far below the one cent mark. The difference between the costs and what customers pay are pure profit for the operators.
Regulas is right about one thing: it is just idiotic that we pay roaming charges in Europe (though I doubt he understood the difference between the EU and the US). Most phone companies are multinational, and the rest would certainly cooperate if they were forced to do so. Cooperation does not exclude competition.
BTW, I pay 1.9 cents per minute for calls from Europe to the USA, through a discounter. If I told you what Telekom, O2 and Vodafone would charge me, you would be vomiting.
Don't get me started on the charges for data transfer. The operators are gangsters.
Considering how pleased the EC and the European Parliament are with their own performance, I am wondering how many of them get paid by the telcos. Thank you.
Actually China charge for incoming call as well, but somehow it is apparently some kinda requirement by the gov.... a bit weird...
If it was really like a "single market", then the roaming charge would be zero. If it doesn't cost to receive a call in the same country, why should it matter if you are in a different one as long as the cross-charging is all sorted out.
And don't tell me it's an "international call", as if that makes a difference now. If it did, they wouldn't put call centers in India.
Thanks so much EU... Those are only suggestions, and they are still gutless!
I don't pay anything for my non-roamed minutes, I never use all my free minutes. Why can't you make the networks take those. Even at twice the rate as local would be better than it is now.
As it is your suggestions are still too high, and when I'm abroad I will continue to turn off my voicemail and ignore the phone when it rings! It will remain an emergency use only phone - apart from when I find those nice open wifi points and I jump onto skype :-)
Steve, one word: corruption.
About the open wifi access points, you are the perfect example to illustrate that free communications, as in beer and speech, via wifi and a few landlines as backbone, actually works. It would work mostly, if not entirely, even without telcos ISPs in between. The only problem is that the people have to realize the power they have, open up their wifi access points, and connect them to one world-wide mesh.