Hacker News Reader

Comment by beardyw | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have to pay for text messages?

People often forget just how much we get from the EU that's taken for granted. Everything from practicalities like no roaming costs and consumer protection, all the way to freedom of movement, peace and overall stability.

Yes, but also the (1) push of PNR to keep a complete record of your travel and movements within the EU. Dutch train operator NS is operating in spirit of the future “PNR” already and makes it harder and harder to buy “anonymous” train ticket (even for local 15min journeys). The so called anonymous card, is linked to your bank account used to top it up. What if you prefer to use cash in your daily life (2), for envelope-style budgeting? Well, your bank will let inform the authorities of your anomaly. You will start receiving monthly questionnaires asking to backup your behavior and why you might want 2-3-4K eur in cash every month.

All that people have to do is vote for the Pirate Party. There are people holding the line in Europe, but the population is worried about war and immigration instead of net neutrality and encryption. These are understandable priorities but it'll not be good.

This is part of the trans Atlantic trade agreements. They have a certain responsibility, having negotiated them, but they clearly feel they are beneficial in some way.

Crediting the EU with peace while Israel and Ukraine are actively at war is a bit much.

Are Israel and Ukraine EU members? Are they fighting members of the EU?

Oh come on, France and Germany were basically in a perpetual war for hundreds of years before, and now there's not even a theoretical chance of any two EU states fighting each other.

Occasional war here and there not directly involving any of the member states is incomparably better than what came before.

I don't think the EU says anything about how much texts should cost...

Edit: I am *obviously* not talking about surcharges for roaming but cost in plans, which I think is the point of the OP when he asks who pays for texts. Pricing is not regulated and has nothing to do with the EU.

It does, quite a lot. For example, it says you should pay the same regardless where you are in the EU (roaming), it also says you get a clear and transparent pricing for your mobile service, it also says all kinds of things about your rights to cancel, change providers, get refunds etc... you should look it up.

Why the snark? Especially since you're beside the point, so let me rephrase with the help of my lawyer: the EU does not say anything about how much consumers should be charged for text messages by their operator (i.e. "cost"). This was clear from my previous comment...

> If you continue to spend more time abroad than you do at home and your roaming consumption continues to exceed your domestic usage your operator may start charging you extra for your roaming use. The surcharges (excluding VAT) are capped at:

> €0.022 per minute of voice calls made

> €0.004 per text message

> €2 per GB of data (cap in 2022, decreasing over time to €1 / GB, which will be the maximum surcharge from 2027 onwards) https://www.google.com/amp/s/europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/c...

The funny part of this is that I avoid such charges by pointlessly using lots of data in home country to account for usage in other EU countries.

So where does it say how much operators can charge in their plans? Nowhere.

They are free to say texts are free (included in plan), or texts are charged at 10 euros each, whatever.

The EU only limits surcharges when roaming to other EU countries.

Jeez, guys.

Edit:

I am not backing away from anything, I was rephrasing to sustain your strange cross-examination. You guys are being unecessarily aggressive and argumentative over a simple point.

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

"don't cross-examine."

It's Sunday, guys. Do something positive with your time. Bye.

So you're backing away from your original stance of:

"I don't think the EU says anything about how much texts should cost."

Into a weaker form of "The EU only limits surcharges when roaming to other EU countries.". This was my only comment because your first position is factually incorrect, there are situations in which the EU defines how much texts can cost.

edit: not sure where you see the aggressiveness

In Germany at least, unless you opt for a super cheap package(e.g. sponsored free or less than EUR 6/-), calls and texts are unlimited in local(country level) networks, only data volume is limited. Not sure about other EU neighbors.

In Poland, 4.70€/mo will get you unlimited calls and texts. Can be purchased on pre-paid plans as a 30-day package, no need for post-paid plans.

If you have to run every image and text through some sort of "filter" you cant turn off... Yes.

Thats a LOT of compute.

That is already happening though, this just says it should also happen to e2e encryption by scanning on device. If it was that expensive costs would have appeared a long time ago.

Yes. The phone batteries across the EU are going to hate this.

I pay ~0.10€ for a text message - but I don't know anyone who uses text messages for communication so it's not a problem. I could buy a cheap plan for unlimited text messages, but I don't want a fixed monthly fee and prefer prepaid.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com