The Latvian’s brokered a late night deal as their EU presidency drew to a close.
All EU mobile networks to offer free roaming (voice and data) throughout the EU from mid-2017.
Full details here
Pricing has dropped a lot in recent years which makes the cost less of an issue that it used to be. But this just takes it further and avoids the hassle of looking for/using a local SIM card on an extended trip/holiday. I have a separate/special one for my iPad which works in France and a few other countries. My “Three” feel-at-home deal has generally worked well in the US and some European countries, but the speeds available have sometimes been throttled so much that it’s become useless for web browsing. I’ve heard it said that roaming traffic has generally increased very substantially in recent years (Quoted as the underlying cause of Telefonica O2’s recent outage) – it’s a difficult business case to make for additional investment when the revenues are dropping.
….Now do you think Greece will be included in the scope by that time 
To me this serves as the perfect example for all those free market liberals that think government intervention is evil. The phone companies all around the globe managed to keep the prices sky high and there was no chance to fix this until the EU stepped in. It is also truly remarkable how much pushback there was from large countries (including Germany) where the phone provider lobbyists are in total control of the agenda.
This is potentially much more subtle / much bigger than most people think.
Currently, each mobile tower has equipment from each cellular company serving the area.
This is a massive waste of resources.
With roaming made illegal (or compulsory without a surcharge, if you like) there won’t be any point in doing the above. You will be able to just buy a SIM from some German company and use it all over the EU. There simply won’t be any point in companies running their own gear. They may as well each throw some money into a big pot and set up a business that runs the towers, and pay its running cost according to their respective data volumes.
Unless, that is, the mandatory non-surcharged roaming applies only once you are out of your own country (the traditional meaning of “roaming”). Within your country, your phone connects only to your company’s equipment. (There is in-country roaming for 999 calls).
But you could circumvent the above that by buying a SIM from a country which is in the EU but which you will never travel to and then you will get superb connectivity everywhere you go including your own back garden. Of course that will just lead to the tower operator(s) dismantling all their equipment except the one shared one, but the connectivity should be preserved.
Peter wrote:
You will be able to just buy a SIM from some German company and use it all over the EU.
The EU compromise limits its to occasional travel use. Providers have the right to charge regular/contant users extra money. Precisely to prevent that scenario.
OK… in the UK, that limits the value of this deal to people who
The last category might be people going away for a few months but want to retain a UK number, but unless they are dumb they can sort out other solutions and it will be worth their while doing that.
I am glad this is finally solved … or will be. I had to spend so much money on roaming charges the last ten years, could have bought a spaee engine for my SR22 … (like when we spent the summer on an island and I and to work while the others went to the beach).
The € 2.99 per day is not the problem, but for me the 50 MB i get for this are.
like when we spent the summer on an island and I and to work while the others went to the beach
If you are on holiday but in a building with WIFI/ADSL then you can set up VOIP and off you go… and if you don’t need VOIP then you just buy a local data SIM and pop it into a 3G/WIFI modem and run everything off that.
But I agree, a few years ago or more this stuff was a black hole for money if you wanted to make voice calls which present your normal number and be able to accept calls made to that number.
Euro Traveller gives me 1GB/month (my basic UK data allowance) anywhere in the EU plus Switzerland and Norway. Not sure about the IOM/Jersey/etc…. they have always played tricks. I pay £17/month plus VAT and get unlimited voice and SMS, and 100 worldwide SMSs, and all this is portable all over Europe as I mentioned. £3/day. The average fashionable teenager on the train to London is paying 2x more, but they get the latest fashionable phone thrown in
Beware – Vodafone run a con on the ET package. It applies only to your basic allowance (1GB in my case). If you buy another say 2GB for the month, that isn’t included for roaming. Equally if their salesman calls you and offers you 3 months’ of unlimited data (because he has just conned you into entering into a fresh 12 month contract ) that cannot be used either! At least 50% of their call centre script monkeys are not aware of this, either
If you are on holiday but in a building with WIFI/ADSL then you can set up VOIP and off you go… and if you don’t need VOIP then you just buy a local data SIM and pop it into a 3G/WIFI modem and run everything off that.
But I agree, a few years ago or more this stuff was a black hole for money if you wanted to make voice calls which present your normal number and be able to accept calls made to that number.
Te or even 8 years ago none of that was so simple as today when you were on a Croatian Island. Also I had to use my normal phone number for work back then, and there was no DSL …
Peter wrote:
OK… in the UK, that limits the value of this deal to people whonever bother to read anything, or
who are not on Vodafone UK (Euro Traveller), or
who are on Vodafone UK (Euro Traveller) and think the £3/day is too much
Or who are not on Three (or any other service that already provides free roaming).
