back to article EU mobile biz barons agree to slash roaming charges

Mobile phone operators in Europe will be forced to cap prices for roaming charges when customers use their devices abroad, Brussels' officials confirmed today. A preliminary deal was struck between members of the European parliament, council representatives and the European Commission on bringing in rules across the 27-state …

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  1. Lars Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Thanks again

    Thanks again Neelie Kroes. Now if we could find somebody to get rid of the increased volume for commercials on the TV.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thanks again

      Noo, that would screw up my ad removal algorithm :)

      1. Lars Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Thanks again

        You have a point there but I am so screwed up bye having to screw down all the time.

    2. LarsG

      about time too but

      I'm sure that they will find a way to make up the losses in other ways.

  2. Paul Shirley

    about to be cheaper to use PAYG abroad than at home!

    That will make it cheaper to call a UK number on my spare "3" SIM than using it here. Appears that's still true even if I move to a newer (poorer value) tariff.

    Mobile charges continue to take the piss ;)

    1. Dazed and Confused

      Re: about to be cheaper to use PAYG abroad than at home!

      Already can be.

      The first Vodafone SIM card I had in India let me call the UK for 8p per minute, so was cheaper than the PAYG SIMs I had for use at home. I think the next time I got one it had gone up to 12p per minute.

  3. The Cube
    Thumb Up

    The wonderful irony of regulation forcing competition

    Come on all you American and Tory party free market muppets, come and explain why it is that "the invisible hand of the market" is down your trousers stealing your wallet until the evil gubbernment steps in to regulate and only then do we see competition in the market driving prices down...

    The key paragraph being;

    "Come July 2014, customers will be able to shop around for the best deal and sign up for a separate mobile contract for roaming, the EC said. They can also expect to retain the same number under both contracts."

    Which, when added to the cap on inter-operator charges enforces competition by letting operators who are not part of the price fixed cartel* offer customers their same service and number for less money than their existing operator.

    * note that there does not need to be direct collusion or even intent to form a cartel, simple theory tells us that markets with high capital barriers to entry will always end up like this with customers being robbed because there is no benefit to any of the network operators in driving price competition, only a benefit to you consumers and you are a dairy herd to be milked.

    1. Arctic fox
      Thumb Up

      @The Cube Re:"note that there does not need to be direct collusion or even intent to form a cartel"

      No indeed, they do not have to do anything so silly as overtly break the law. They simply understand their interests very well and by means of the good old "nod's as good as a wink" method are able, in practice to rig the market as thoroughly as if they had formed a cartel. Ironically enough the "Father" of free market theory, Adam Smith, warned about precisely this kind of behaviour several hundred years ago. Strange that modern neoliberal economists have a tendency to go very quiet on this issue, hmm? Their demagogic insistence that government intervention is to be avoided at all costs when there are obviously circumstances where only government intervention is going to work leaves them silent on a subject (rigging the market) that ought (according to their own professed beliefs) to have them screaming loud and long.

  4. SMabille

    £590/Gb what a good deal

    That put the Gb of data at £590... looks like the operators will still be able to make some money out of punters unable to find (free) Wi-Fi....

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