Re: BBC- EU caps roaming mobile phone fees

On May 23, 4:15 pm, d4g...@yahoo.co.uk (David Horne, _the_ chancellor
(*)) wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6682835.stm
>
> Widely reported in the past, but looks more certain now. Good news IMO.
>

Good news? Yes and no.

It's already possible to make calls a lot more cheaply anyway, though
this is perhaps the territory of only phone nerds

If this was to lead to some companies dropping products that are
already potentially cheaper, such as O2's My Europe Extra, this might
be viewed as unfortunate, or even cynical

Still the GSMA propaganda is trotting out the lie that competition is
improving the market instead, only 3 or 4 years after some networks
more than doubled roaming tariffs like Orange's hike in Eastern Europe
from 51p to £1.10, which has dropped to 70p,. while instead non-EU
Norway has been booted up from 70p to £1.30

I'd be even slightly impressed by the GSMA if they could be arsed to
update coverage maps on their website some time in the last 3 years or
so.

When I first got an Orange contract, 1999, roaming costs were pretty
much on a par with tariffs at home, between 25 and 30p a minute in UK,
Belgium, France, Netherlands.

One has dropped to a third while the other has trebled, so it's
overdue that the trend be reversed. But the bureaucratic targets
simply aren't ambitious enough. There is still plenty of scope for the
various mvno global SIM providers, with one or two more expected soon