As most may know the EU have forced the mobile operators to reduce
their roaming charges and I think it kicks in pretty soon. Recently
I've been bombarded by Orange to sign up to 1 of their roaming
bundles. As I'm going to be roaming for much of the next month I
decided to call Cust Services to maybe sign up for one. What a rip
off. First of all when I asked them when they would be reducing their
roaming charges I was told they were not. Not sure what the EU will
think about that.
Their roaming rate in the countries I'm going to is 70p / min. To buy
a £25 bundle you get the princely reduction to 50p for 50 mins, for
£15 you get 25 mins at 60p then you are back up to 70p/min.
The other thing to be aware of is that when the EU rule kicks in and
forces them to reduce their roaming rate to about 35p if you are
already on a roaming rate they do not need to put you on to this new
rate so can carry on fleecing you. Watch out!!
"nigel" <bubs719-dd@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1185554348.346989.192270@d55g2000hsg.googlegr oups.com...
> As most may know the EU have forced the mobile operators to reduce
> their roaming charges and I think it kicks in pretty soon. Recently
> I've been bombarded by Orange to sign up to 1 of their roaming
> bundles. As I'm going to be roaming for much of the next month I
> decided to call Cust Services to maybe sign up for one. What a rip
> off. First of all when I asked them when they would be reducing
their
> roaming charges I was told they were not. Not sure what the EU will
> think about that.
They have 3 more days to make you an offer of a "Eurotariff" rate.
See:
> Their roaming rate in the countries I'm going to is 70p / min. To
buy
> a £25 bundle you get the princely reduction to 50p for 50 mins, for
> £15 you get 25 mins at 60p then you are back up to 70p/min.
>
> The other thing to be aware of is that when the EU rule kicks in and
> forces them to reduce their roaming rate to about 35p if you are
> already on a roaming rate they do not need to put you on to this new
> rate so can carry on fleecing you. Watch out!!
Yes - this does seem to be a hole in the regulations.
I guess it was aimed at the likes of Vodafone Passport, which works
out at more than the EU rates for short calls but much less for longer
calls, so I guess they didn't want to kill that type of tariff.
But they should have known greedy mobile operators would try to take
advantage of this exemption and pull the type of stunt you describe.
I am also still waiting for any information from Virgin Mobile...
Have other operators already informed their customers? (I think Tesco Mobile
has already reduced their roaming rates, but haven't found much information
on the Web sites of other operators)
Christof
-- http://cmeerw.org sip:cmeerw at cmeerw.org
mailto:cmeerw at cmeerw.org xmpp:cmeerw at cmeerw.org
On 28/7/07 08:52, Christof Meerwald wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:13:53 +0100, Andy Pandy wrote:
>> They have 3 more days to make you an offer of a "Eurotariff" rate.
>> See:
>>
>> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/e...default_en.htm
>
> I am also still waiting for any information from Virgin Mobile...
>
> Have other operators already informed their customers? (I think Tesco Mobile
> has already reduced their roaming rates, but haven't found much information
> on the Web sites of other operators)
>
Had an e mail from T-Mobile earlier in the week but nothing [yet] from
Orange...
Christof Meerwald wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:13:53 +0100, Andy Pandy wrote:
>> They have 3 more days to make you an offer of a "Eurotariff" rate.
>> See:
>>
>> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/e...default_en.htm
>
> I am also still waiting for any information from Virgin Mobile...
>
> Have other operators already informed their customers? (I think Tesco Mobile
> has already reduced their roaming rates, but haven't found much information
> on the Web sites of other operators)
>
>
> Christof
>
All should by end July and you should get the rate within one month of
"opting in", though all customers should have the rates by end Sept.
This, of course, allows some operators to delay availability to the end
of August thereby covering the holiday period with the higher rates.
There is also a large variation in rates, as some are applying the max
(38/19p)and others give lower (Tesco and O2). It can be a bit of a
struggle to find the rates on their sites, as that can give the
operators a bit of extra revenue while you search ;-) T-mobile, for
example, are changing on 30 August and therefore still give the old
rates when you look them up, but have a link to give the new rates. They
also appear to be limiting it to EU countries, whereas O2 include other
European countries, eg Switzerland.
The other thing to note is that the max rate reduces in 12 and 24 months
time and the regulation expires in 36 months.
PeeGee
--
The reply address is a spam trap. All mail is reported as spam.
"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be
able to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)
[]
> There is also a large variation in rates, as some are applying the max
> (38/19p)and others give lower (Tesco and O2). It can be a bit of a
> struggle to find the rates on their sites, as that can give the
> operators a bit of extra revenue while you search ;-) T-mobile, for
> example, are changing on 30 August and therefore still give the old
> rates when you look them up, but have a link to give the new rates. They
> also appear to be limiting it to EU countries, whereas O2 include other
> European countries, eg Switzerland.
The rates only apply to EU countries though. They can charge what they
want elsewhere. Tesco has kept the same rates for Norway, Switzerland
etc.
--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Ex-Pres. Blair- May, 2007
"PeeGee" <triessuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:f8etph$df8$1@aioe.org...
> There is also a large variation in rates, as some are applying the
max
> (38/19p)and others give lower (Tesco and O2). It can be a bit of a
> struggle to find the rates on their sites, as that can give the
> operators a bit of extra revenue while you search ;-) T-mobile, for
> example, are changing on 30 August and therefore still give the old
> rates when you look them up, but have a link to give the new rates.
They
> also appear to be limiting it to EU countries, whereas O2 include
other
> European countries, eg Switzerland.
One thing which isn't clear from the regulations is what call types it
applies to. For instance:
1) Non geographic (0845/0870 etc).
2) Mobiles and landlines anywhere in the EU? For instance if I'm
roaming in France can I call a mobile in Italy?
3) Does it apply to UK tariffs - for instance many contracts have a
rip-off x-net rate if you exceed your included allowance (as they want
people to pre-buy excess minutes and waste them every month). Some are
40p/min or more. Will these have to come down too?
Andy Pandy <spam8times@wonderful.spam.invalid> wrote:
> "PeeGee" <triessuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:f8etph$df8$1@aioe.org...
> > There is also a large variation in rates, as some are applying the
> max
> > (38/19p)and others give lower (Tesco and O2). It can be a bit of a
> > struggle to find the rates on their sites, as that can give the
> > operators a bit of extra revenue while you search ;-) T-mobile, for
> > example, are changing on 30 August and therefore still give the old
> > rates when you look them up, but have a link to give the new rates.
> They
> > also appear to be limiting it to EU countries, whereas O2 include
> other
> > European countries, eg Switzerland.
>
> One thing which isn't clear from the regulations is what call types it
> applies to. For instance:
>
> 1) Non geographic (0845/0870 etc).
>
> 2) Mobiles and landlines anywhere in the EU? For instance if I'm
> roaming in France can I call a mobile in Italy?
The idea is that it shouldn't cost you more to make a call while roaming
than you would pay for that call at home. Obviously, it's impossible to
really rationalise this.
> 3) Does it apply to UK tariffs - for instance many contracts have a
> rip-off x-net rate if you exceed your included allowance (as they want
> people to pre-buy excess minutes and waste them every month). Some are
> 40p/min or more. Will these have to come down too?
It doesn't apply to UK tariffs, but to roaming, where the EU commission
has felt there hasn't been enough competition.
Mobile companies here and in Europe are fond of very complicated pricing
plans, as they confuse their customers. Yet another reason why I prefer
a prepaid plan with very simple pricing...
--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Ex-Pres. Blair- May, 2007
Christof Meerwald wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:13:53 +0100, Andy Pandy wrote:
>> They have 3 more days to make you an offer of a "Eurotariff" rate.
>> See:
>>
>> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/e...default_en.htm
>
> I am also still waiting for any information from Virgin Mobile...
>
> Have other operators already informed their customers? (I think Tesco
> Mobile has already reduced their roaming rates, but haven't found
> much information on the Web sites of other operators)
>
>
> Christof
I got a text on my Orange PAYG phone (which I only use for occasional
GPRS and cinema tickets) saying that their prices have changed as of the
end of August. I deleted the text though...
--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Ex-Pres. Blair- May, 2007
Andy Pandy wrote:
> "PeeGee" <triessuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:f8etph$df8$1@aioe.org...
>> There is also a large variation in rates, as some are applying the
> max
>> (38/19p)and others give lower (Tesco and O2). It can be a bit of a
>> struggle to find the rates on their sites, as that can give the
>> operators a bit of extra revenue while you search ;-) T-mobile, for
>> example, are changing on 30 August and therefore still give the old
>> rates when you look them up, but have a link to give the new rates.
> They
>> also appear to be limiting it to EU countries, whereas O2 include
> other
>> European countries, eg Switzerland.
>
> One thing which isn't clear from the regulations is what call types it
> applies to. For instance:
>
> 1) Non geographic (0845/0870 etc).
>
Appears to be covered (if the number is available) - see below
> 2) Mobiles and landlines anywhere in the EU? For instance if I'm
> roaming in France can I call a mobile in Italy?
>
Article 2
(e) "regulated roaming call" means a mobile voice telephony call made by
a roaming customer, originating on a visited network and terminating on
a public telephone network within the Community or received by a roaming
customer, originating on a public telephone network within the Community
and terminating on a visited network;
> 3) Does it apply to UK tariffs - for instance many contracts have a
> rip-off x-net rate if you exceed your included allowance (as they want
> people to pre-buy excess minutes and waste them every month). Some are
> 40p/min or more. Will these have to come down too?
>
Article 4(3) icludes
However, roaming customers who before 30 June 2007 had already made a
deliberate choice of a specific roaming tariff or package other than the
roaming tariff which they would have been accorded in the absence of
such choice, and who fail to express a choice pursuant to this
paragraph, shall remain on their previously chosen tariff or package.
PeeGee
--
The reply address is a spam trap. All mail is reported as spam.
"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be
able to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)
"PeeGee" <triessuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:f8fvds$mo0$1@aioe.org...
> > One thing which isn't clear from the regulations is what call
types it
> > applies to. For instance:
> >
> > 1) Non geographic (0845/0870 etc).
> >
>
> Appears to be covered (if the number is available) - see below
>
> > 2) Mobiles and landlines anywhere in the EU? For instance if I'm
> > roaming in France can I call a mobile in Italy?
> >
> Article 2
> (e) "regulated roaming call" means a mobile voice telephony call
made by
> a roaming customer, originating on a visited network and terminating
on
> a public telephone network within the Community or received by a
roaming
> customer, originating on a public telephone network within the
Community
> and terminating on a visited network;
Thanks... so if you are roaming in France and you get an incoming
call - the 19p max rate may not be applicable if the call came from
outside the EU!
"David Horne" <d4g4h4@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1i1z3sc.1c3wnllotmu4vN%d4g4h4@yahoo.co.uk...
> > One thing which isn't clear from the regulations is what call
types it
> > applies to. For instance:
> >
> > 1) Non geographic (0845/0870 etc).
> >
> > 2) Mobiles and landlines anywhere in the EU? For instance if I'm
> > roaming in France can I call a mobile in Italy?
>
> The idea is that it shouldn't cost you more to make a call while
roaming
> than you would pay for that call at home. Obviously, it's impossible
to
> really rationalise this.
I don't understand what you're saying - clearly some calls are going
to be more when roaming than at home, eg calls to a UK landline.
> > 3) Does it apply to UK tariffs - for instance many contracts have
a
> > rip-off x-net rate if you exceed your included allowance (as they
want
> > people to pre-buy excess minutes and waste them every month). Some
are
> > 40p/min or more. Will these have to come down too?
>
> It doesn't apply to UK tariffs, but to roaming, where the EU
commission
> has felt there hasn't been enough competition.
>
> Mobile companies here and in Europe are fond of very complicated
pricing
> plans, as they confuse their customers.
Yes - they like plans that appear simple - eg £25 for 500 mins, but
are really much more complicated as one type of "minute" isn't the
same as another (eg calls to non-geographic, abroad, roaming etc).
It's really £25 a month for 500 of certain types of minutes, and if
you want other types of minutes you have to pay extra and don't get
the money back for the type of minutes you've already paid for.... It
really is a con.
> Yet another reason why I prefer
> a prepaid plan with very simple pricing...
Or a contract like my company has - none of this "inclusive minutes"
bullshit - simply a set of rates per minute so you pay for what you
use. A colleague recently switched to the company tariff - he was
paying £30 a month for an "inclusive minutes" tariff where a good
chuck of his calls weren't the correct type, so he was actually paying
around £35-40, he now pays £5-10 a month.
David Kennedy
<davidkennedy@nospamtodaythanksverymuchforthekindo fferyoubastard.invalid>typed
> Had an e mail from T-Mobile earlier in the week but nothing [yet] from
> Orange...
Have received text messages from Orange, telling me their roaming
charges go down on 30/8/07, just when most people have returned from
their summer holidays, how nice!
I had a text from t-mobile last week. The part I found interesting was that SMS
messages will be charged at 40p to send, MMS will only be charged at 20p, and
for flext customers it will come out of the contract allowance. I don't think I
will be sending any SMS messages, but will just use MMS instead.
The other intriging bit I found while looking on the website, was that you may
see a Luxembourg network when you are on a ferry off the coast of France, how
does that work?
Phil
--
Old protocols never die. They just get migrated over TCP/IP.
Helen Deborah Vecht <helenvecht@zetnet.co.uk> wrote:
> David Kennedy
> <davidkennedy@nospamtodaythanksverymuchforthekindo fferyoubastard.invalid>typed
>
>
> > Had an e mail from T-Mobile earlier in the week but nothing [yet] from
> > Orange...
>
> Have received text messages from Orange, telling me their roaming
> charges go down on 30/8/07, just when most people have returned from
> their summer holidays, how nice!
You can blame the EU for that, but it's no surprise that some mobile
companies would wait until the last possible minute.
--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Ex-Pres. Blair- May, 2007
nigel <bubs719-dd@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
: I decided to call Cust Services to maybe sign up for one. What a rip
: off. First of all when I asked them when they would be reducing their
: roaming charges I was told they were not. Not sure what the EU will
: think about that.
You were told incorrect information! See www.orange.co.uk/go (as on the
front page of last month's Bill from Orange.
Includes the EEA (which is more generous than just the EU counties which
some other operators seem to be confining their offers to!)
> nigel <bubs719-dd@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> : I decided to call Cust Services to maybe sign up for one. What a rip
> : off. First of all when I asked them when they would be reducing their
> : roaming charges I was told they were not. Not sure what the EU will
> : think about that.
>
> You were told incorrect information! See www.orange.co.uk/go (as on the
> front page of last month's Bill from Orange.
>
> Includes the EEA (which is more generous than just the EU counties which
> some other operators seem to be confining their offers to!)
That's true, but companies like Tesco are already offering these rates
in EU countries- Orange is bringing in their slightly higher rates at
the end of the main holiday season.
--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Ex-Pres. Blair- May, 2007
On Jul 30, 8:32 am, Phil<p...@thecork.trig222.f9.co.uk> wrote:
> I had a text from t-mobile last week. The part I found interesting was that SMS
> messages will be charged at 40p to send, MMS will only be charged at 20p, and
> for flext customers it will come out of the contract allowance. I don't think I
> will be sending any SMS messages, but will just use MMS instead.
>
> The other intriging bit I found while looking on the website, was that you may
> see a Luxembourg network when you are on a ferry off the coast of France, how
> does that work?
There is a small local cell on the ferry, probably connected by
satellite
You may also find an Icelandic network in the Adriatic, or on cruise
ships
Similar things will happen in some airliners soon, perhaps Monaco or
Telenor
Roaming Charges 
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