Hacker News Reader

Comment by matteuan | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately, there is still one important limitation: we will keep the fees for the traffic from our home countries.

No, calling foreign numbers costs the same in both your country and abroad. And it's usually more expensive on mobile networks, but that doesn't have anything to do with roaming.

I misunderstood, I read things again and you are right.

This isn't correct - these regulations only apply when roaming. In your home network the operator can charge what it likes for intra-EU calls.

I don't think that the price of foreign calls will be affected – everything is simply charged at the home plan rate. Calling e.g. a French number will cost the same regardless of whether I am in France or the UK.

Incorrect. The regulation only applies when roaming.

To take three UK for example:

  Calling Spain from the UK: 46p/min
  Calling Spain from France while roaming: inclusive in minutes allowance, otherwise 3p/min.

I also checked Vodafone.de and it's the same thing - nearly €1/min if you're in Germany, or inclusive if you're roaming.

It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

Some years ago happened a similar thing with SMS. For example within Italy they costed 15 cents, but between countries 13cents because of the EU regulation.

Ahah, I see. It's quite hard to see what's going on through the contract language!

> It's a bit of a joke really. I don't know why the EU didn't think of this.

It's not within their power to regulate these charges.

That is correct. Calling from your own EU country to any other country within the EU is still costing extra.

Technically it isn't roaming and the telcos happily charge you premium as it does not fall under that regulation. Many people will be confused by this bit.

EU mostly regulates inter-state commerce, not internal markets in countries, that's the job for the local regulators.

> calling foreign numbers will cost more at home than when travelling abroad

How so?

Unless your provider’s plan includes calling abroad at domestic rates, calling a foreign number from home will be more expensive than calling that same foreign number from another member state. It’s a rather absurd consequence of the fact that it was decided that any communication from the state your provider is in (calls, data usage, etc.) is not technically “roaming”, and therefore not part of the “Roam like at home” agreement.

While this agreement is definitely a step in the right direction, a few exceptions like this might actually increase phone bills for a number of people who were previously on special EU plans with their provider, some of which are now being phased out. A couple of parties are calling for the EU parliament to address these issues, but I don't think it will be changed any time soon.

Suppose I have an Italian SIM and pay x to call Italian numbers, and 2x to call French ones. If I go to France, with these rules, I think I'll still pay x to call Italian numbers, and 2x to call French ones?

No, while in France you'll pay x to call all EU numbers.

No Symbiote, his assumption is correct. You will pay 2x for calling french numbers, but still x for calling italian numbers. I also tried these days (my operator activated this regulation last week). I went to Italy with the german card and I could call german numbers for free(that's in my contract) but I was spending more to call italian ones (2 cent btw).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com