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posted by mattie_p on Wednesday February 19 2014, @01:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-stay-home dept.

girlwhowaspluggedout writes:

"The European Commission reports that, fearing high roaming charges, many EU citizens forgo the use of their mobile phones outside their home country. According to a survey done by the Commission (pdf), when travelling to another EU country, 90% of all EU citizens limit their e-mail use, 47% do not use their mobile internet connection, 33% never place calls, 25% do not text, and a staggering 28% simply turn off their mobile phones.

Roaming charges, the Commission suggests, are hurting the fledgling EU app sector. In trying to avoid paying data premiums, travelers limit their use of data-heavy apps, like travel guides, maps, and photo applications. Frequent travelers are even more likely to turn-off their phones, perhaps due to being better informed about the costs of data roaming.

The Commission reports that data roaming use across the EU has increased by 1500% since the introduction of price caps in 2008. It suggests that by eliminating all roaming charges, mobile providers will gain a further 300 million customers. These findings give further support to regulations proposed by the Commission that will create a single mobile phone market throughout the EU, enabling all customers to enjoy domestic rates when travelling within the EU."

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by crutchy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:00AM

    by crutchy (179) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:00AM (#2263) Homepage Journal

    The wonders of unregulated commerce.

    you'll probably find that it's actually a huge amount of regulation that supports the existing monopolies that no doubt pay huge political campaign contributions to maintain the status quo.
    remove monopoly-supporting regulations and you get competative startups (including from other countries)... not so good for monopolies.
    the problem is that politicians wield too much power over markets... and they sell that power to the highest bidder. take away power from the politicians and they have nothing to sell, so the lobbyists lose their jobs and companies have to compete on a level playing field.

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