Best deals for roaming?

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PDQ Mobile
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Joined: 2 Aug 2015, 4:40pm

Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by PDQ Mobile »

Psmanthe^^^

I take the point ok, but there are some problems IMV.
Personally I just don't want the digital "faff".
I am not a lover of the technology.
Detest it really, find it very boring.
I would have to understand what GSM is for starters!!


And then there is one's telephone interlocutors, they must also be "au fait" with such systems and complexities.
Which in my case is definitely not the case.
They just want to contact through normal landline (or mobile) channels.

I can't see any issues with doing just that.
Simple and easy. I so love simple!!

All the infrastructure is in place across Europe.
Only excess profiteering may get in the way.
Oh and politics of course.
Sad.
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MrsHJ
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by MrsHJ »

I find the change to the rules a bit myopic. Ok, due to COVID we aren’t travelling as much but in general we travel more, we have more friends from overseas, people are more mobile for-work etc so this feels like a retrograde move (Brexit vibes ignoring the regulatory stuff).

Anyway I like the security of roaming when travelling by myself so I can figure out where I am and book hotels etc and was recommended to go to three by people here when I went on a two month trip to the states as it features international roaming beyond but including the EU and it’s worked great for me.

I suggest we all migrate from the costly roaming networks. As far as I’m concerned they just aren’t relevant for my requirements.
nirakaro
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by nirakaro »

I think the trouble is that your free roaming – and mine – is now dependant on the stability of Three's business model, rather than on EU regulation. Where one supplier has gone, expect others to follow.
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MrsHJ
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by MrsHJ »

nirakaro wrote: 4 Jul 2021, 4:55pm I think the trouble is that your free roaming – and mine – is now dependant on the stability of Three's business model, rather than on EU regulation. Where one supplier has gone, expect others to follow.
Agreed- but it’s a lot wider than the EU. As I mentioned It worked great in the US when I was cycling up the canal from Washington to Pittsburg. Pretty remote and yet the coyotes and I had fairly decent coverage a lot of the time. It was worse in Arizona where I was in the middle of blooming nowhere a lot of the time or presumably threes affiliates didn’t have great coverage.
nirakaro
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by nirakaro »

I had an excellent moment a couple of years back, when I was camped on the bank of the Danube in Serbia, where calling the UK cost IIRC about £2 a minute. The phone mast I could see across the river was in Romania, so my phone assumed that I was in Romania too, and I had free roaming. :D :D
PDQ Mobile
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by PDQ Mobile »

nirakaro wrote: 5 Jul 2021, 8:06am I had an excellent moment a couple of years back, when I was camped on the bank of the Danube in Serbia, where calling the UK cost IIRC about £2 a minute. The phone mast I could see across the river was in Romania, so my phone assumed that I was in Romania too, and I had free roaming. :D :D
On some (all?) phones one can choose the service provider manually and achieve similar- with a bit of faff.

It's not "free" roaming, just that roaming is included in many packages. You and I pay for it.
The extortionate charges you mention were,in the case of the EU, regulated against as a help to ordinary less well off folk.

Other far flung places have similar deals, depending on provider.
As mentioned earler 3 are very good in this regard, I hope it helps "their business model"!
nirakaro
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by nirakaro »

PDQ Mobile wrote: 5 Jul 2021, 9:36am It's not "free" roaming, just that roaming is included in many packages. You and I pay for it.
I wasn't suggesting – or imagining – that I had free phone calls. The 'roaming' bit though – i.e. calling from a foreign country – used to incur an extra charge, and now doesn't. So 'free roaming', I think, was correct. Sorry if I'm being pedantic.
PDQ Mobile
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by PDQ Mobile »

^^
I didn't think you were being so.
It's just that I pay every month and sometimes use little of my allowances, so for the few times I am glad of "roaming" I feel I have made my contribution.

The old charges before the EU stepped in were nothing short of scandalous.
francovendee
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Joined: 5 May 2009, 6:32am

Reintroduction of Mobile roaming charges.

Post by francovendee »

First EE and now Vodafone are reintroducing charges in January.
Has Brexit caused this or is it just a way of extracting more money by greedy phone companies?
thirdcrank
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Re: Reintroduction of Mobile roaming charges.

Post by thirdcrank »

Stevek76
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Re: Reintroduction of Mobile roaming charges.

Post by Stevek76 »

I don't think it's additional greed over the normal amounts of such companies. They've a profit to maximize and for the ones that incur costs from customers roaming it's clearly a viable pricing model to charge customers for roaming to allow more competitive headline monthly rates.

EU regs were forcing these companies into pricing models that weren't optimal for them, some degree of reversion was an inevitable consequence of brexit.

For those like Three that don't incur significant costs from roaming in many countries then they will chuck it in 'for free' as selling point
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Reintroduction of Mobile roaming charges.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

francovendee wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 1:15pm First EE and now Vodafone are reintroducing charges in January.
Has Brexit caused this or is it just a way of extracting more money by greedy phone companies?
This is entirely the result of the hard Tory brexit.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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mjr
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Re: Reintroduction of Mobile roaming charges.

Post by mjr »

Stevek76 wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 1:36pm For those like Three that don't incur significant costs from roaming in many countries then they will chuck it in 'for free' as selling point
Why don't they? Three only have overseas operations in Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Macau and Sweden: 7 countries in total. Vodafone has operations in 17 countries, most of them in Europe, but is reintroducing roaming charges.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Psamathe
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by Psamathe »

Does anybody know what the "tourism balance" (or visitor balance) is between UK and EU? EE customer on holiday in France for 2 weeks France and uses French GSM data whilst French person on holiday in UK for 2 weeks uses UK GSM data so both countries see pretty much the same data so incurr no additional load or cost; same with NL person visiting IT and IT person visits DE and DE person visits NL and it all roughly balances out so no GSM companies need extra infrastructure or see and real overhead increases.

Ian
Jdsk
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Re: EE - No More Free Mobile Roaming from January

Post by Jdsk »

MoneySavingExpert on Vodafone's announcement:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... e-charges/

Jonathan
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