Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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."

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:46AM

    by Darth Turbogeek (1073) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:46AM (#2320)

    Most (if not all) are costs long sunk or depreciated off the book and the equipment is what you would need to run your netork anyway. It's really not in any way shape or form either a money issue or a sheer grunt issue - or even a technical one. Plus short lived connections? That's what a cell network does, if it cant handle onee roamer then some technial officer needs to go on the unemployment queue

    The actual cost per call would be now extremely low. I can accept when mobiles were first A Thing that the costs were there and also considerable per connection but this has long ceased to be the case. Let me put it this way - I roamed from where I usually reside to England and the data cost with Vodapone was incredible. In Finland hte cost was so, so SO much lower. England? I got bitten for 4500, the per MB rate was just astronomical.

    Telcos were not able to justify the charges 7 years ago, they certainly cant now, the cost per MB would be at best a few cents.