Pimparoo wrote:
EU+ EEA countries but Switzerland was somehow moved to these countries like Papua-New Guinea
My German T-Mobile contract treats Switzerland like the EU so I can use my data there. Just 2 weeks ago I used 3GB in Switzerland (which has excellent 4G b.t.w.).
Peter wrote:
They must limit it otherwise all of the EU, except possibly Germany, will be applying for a German SIM card….
We don’t know how and what they will do but they are allowed to charge extra if they see that you do not spend the majority of your time in the country of the carrier. Time will tell. I think the EU should prevent them from taking measures, after all we’re a common market and there shouldn’t be any trade hurdles.
There are some phone companies who don’t actually know what countries are in the EU.
Since the Isle of Man is not included on any of this, I have always had at least 3 SIM cards (home, UK – the UK one is in a MiFi – and Spain). Last year, as roaming charges within the EU started becoming reasonable, on a trip to Malta I decided to use my Yoigo (Spain) SIM card and put it in my phone.
I immediately got a text message saying I was outside the EU, and the cost was BIGNUM euro/MB, and slightly less than BIGNUM euro/minute for phone calls, and I had to go to the Yoigo website to enable this.
Malta held the EU presidency at the time…I was going to write a snotty email to Yoigo about this but I just bought yet another SIM card (Maltese Vodafone) and forgot about it. So now I have 4 SIM cards!
I think the EU should prevent them from taking measures, after all we’re a common market and there shouldn’t be any trade hurdles.
I agree but as I wrote 2 years ago there will be massive resistance to the obvious outcome of this if there were no foreign residence limits which would be the rationalisation of the equipment mounted on the towers.
There was massive resistance to this whole roaming thing.
The EU have learned how to do things that are popular with the people. We might see more of that stuff, after all EU approval ratings are now actively being gathered by the Commission.
For me personally, the EU data roaming is a huge quality of life improvement and a good example that the market economy does not always come up with consumer friendly solutions and political interference can be positive.
One obvious downside to buying a “foreign” sim card and using it permanently at home is that you’ll have foreign phone number that people won’t want to call, because calls from home to foreign numbers are still expensive for most.
That’s unless you have implemented the Holy Grail of mobile telecomms 
VOIP on outgoing calls (easy, if the network is not screwing with the packet latency as most of them are). You can present any number that you “control”. In the case below you would present the geographical number. I have this already – works only on WIFI and presents my mobile #.
VOIP on incoming calls (have to buy a geographical number and screw around with keep-alive packet config, or use a VOIP app which does it all). Battery life impacted considerably because you don’t get the instant incoming-call/sms notification which you get on GSM and the phone has to constantly poll over the internet.
One day this is how mobile phones will work but it’s gonna take an awfully long time because it’s like replacing a tax system with a 20% flat rate 
