Baba giving Android gyan: EU finally ends mobile roaming charges for member countries

If you live in any of the European Union countries and constantly travel back and forth in the region, we have good news. You no longer will faint at the sight of your mobile bill due to astronomical roaming charges. The EU parliament has finally ratified the end of mobile roaming charges after years of negotiations and lobbying. So by June 17 of next year, you will not be paying more than what you actually spent traveling due to the anti-roaming law that will take effect by then.

This basically means that whenever you travel to any of the member countries, you’ll only be paying home or regular rates for any voice calls, texting and mobile data. However, this is still subject to a fair use cap that still hasn’t been clearly defined as of now. It has been called a "victory for consumers and a stepping stone towards a truly European digital single market,” by Viviane Reding, a former vice president for the European Commission.

This was a two year battle for the advocates, since there were concerns from some member states that this will drastically affect national telecom groups and their financial standing. Originally, it was scheduled to take effect by the end of this year, but some ministers blocked the move. Carriers can still charge up to 19 cents (14p) a minute for outgoing calls, five cents for incoming calls, six cents per text message, and 20 cents per megabyte of data downloaded which will be on top of the normal tariffs. By April next year, it will go down to five cents per minute for calls, two cents per SMS and five cents per MB

But all that will end by June 17 when roaming will totally be removed. When they started lowering roaming charges around 2007, the volume of the market has of course grown by 630%. Now the question is if mobile operators are losing money or actually gaining more due to the steadily increasing market volume.

VIA: IP Carrier, The Guardian

from Android Community http://ift.tt/1WhCjCQ
Need Techno Baba (India Wale) to guide you on any gadget or mobile purchase. Feel free to tweet Techno Baba (@BhatiaSachin)