EU Reduces Roaming Charges for European Union
Where ever you wander, where ever you roam...
The European Union's new data roaming regulations are officially in effect, which means it's now quite a bit cheaper to use your phone while traveling around the EU. The new regulations will see the cost of data roaming drop by up to 91 percent compared to 2007 but the regulations will result in reductions across calls, SMS and data.
New caps will see a 36 percent reduction in data charges compared to 2012. The price cap for data is now 45c per MB plus VAT. Calls out are capped at 24c per minute plus VAT, while charges for incoming calls are capped at 7c per minute plus vat. The cap for sending texts is now 8c plus VAT. These charges will drop even further next year. Come July 1, 2014, data will be capped at 20c per MB, calls out will be capped at 19c, calls in will be capped at 5c and text messages will be capped at 6c.
"The EU has to be relevant to people’s lives. The latest price cuts put more money in your pocket for summer, and are a critical step towards getting rid of these premiums once and for all," said Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes. "This is good for both consumers and companies, because it takes fear out of the market, and it grows the market."
The EU reminds us that though these are the caps for roaming charges, operators can offer customers cheaper rates than the caps listed above.
o2 or vodaphone a monthly fee , O2.BE or vodaphone.de ( belguim / german devisions of the company) shouldn't really count as roaming they are the same god damn company . If you look at the new price's the networks are setting there pretty much all charging the max .... "because they can"
Vodaphone are a little less evil about it allowing you to use your domestic minutes for a £3 PER DAY surcharge which if your a medium user is probably worthwhile but that also shows they are obviously the same organisation just ripping you off , we live in a multicultural Europe where i can drive from the UK to Germany in five hours its not really roaming anymore.
People who pay roaming are usually the ones who have too much money like business people who who need to use same number for their clients to be able to contact them or those who don't research the costs before using their sim in a foreign country.
pro tip: It really isn't, at least in the way you are inferring. SMS/MMS have their own protocols and the way your phone company sends it to your phone isn't via the same way it sends "data" to your phone. Strictly speaking, you are correct, because a phone call, Internet usage, or MMS/SMS are all "data", but you are wrong in suggesting that sending an SMS is the same as going to TomsHardware on your phone's web browser.
That being said, you are correct that they are massively overcharging for their services. Phone companies love SMS because it puts an extremely small load on their systems and they can charge you a ton of money for it.