New EU regs on charges
 

I see that the EU have passed new regulations on EU roaming.

As of July, data will be charged at a maximum rate of 56p per megabyte and calls will be capped at 23p per minute, plus VAT.

They have also passed regulation to allow customers to select different mobile operators and tariffs when going abroad, to give competitive pricing and allow users to keep their number but move to a different provider for going abroad. This will come into effect in 2014.

Always good news :)

I see Virgin currently charge a flat rate of £5 per megabyte unless you buy one of their packs. Quite some saving for those who are abroad a lot.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

It's true that this will make it considerably cheaper, for calls and texts also. However I still don't understand why prices are not fixed throughout the EU.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Just been onto CS about this, the VM website is still showing European Data
roaming charges as a flat rate of £5 per MB unless you buy one of their packs

I got passed from pillar to post as usual, eventually asked to speak to a manager who insisted that it was part of my T&C's that was the price I would have to pay

I quoted from the ofcom site

Data charges
A cap on roaming data charges in the European Union came into force on 1 July 2012.
This cap means that phone companies can charge no more than 70 cents (58p) per megabyte of data, plus VAT.

he wasn't interested at all, I asked that he escalate my complaint up and if I didn't hear back from someone at VM within 24hrs I would start a complaint via CISAS

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Why is nobody moaning about the EU capping roaming charges?

Surely they shouldn't be interfering in our market by forcing phone companies to reduce their roaming charges by almost 90%?

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Well it seems VM agree with you because as far as i can see they are just ignoring the EU capping Data roaming charges anyway

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Yes. It would seem to me they're on very dodgy grounds there, and could well be looking forward to a hefty fine if they are ignoring the roaming cap.

Edit: Having just looked at the site, it is rather ambiguous.

It's not clear what the charge per MB within Europe is outside their packs. Yet, it would seem odd if the price per MB were higher than for the 5MB pack.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Thanks for that, the first CS I talked to said that the Data roaming charges shown on the VM website must be right or they wouldn't be on the website :confused:

The manager I (eventually) got to talk to didn't really know what I was talking about ref EU capping Data roaming that came in on 1st July

I'm going to Spain next week and wanted to know where I stood ref Data roaming, would rather this were cleared up before I went, but I'm not holding my breathe :mad:

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Yeah. I agree that they should be clearer. They shouldn't be charging £5 per MB. I suppose you could buy one of the packs to be on the safe side. The bigger packs do work out cheaper than the minimum charge per MB

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

I did ask that someone phone me back, but if they don't i will try to raise a complaint via CISAS

All the VM website seem to want to is sell bundles, so how much will I be charged if I don't buy a bundle? the VM is not clear, surely it should say 58p per megabyte of data, plus VAT

might also, to be on safe side turn off surfing on my mobile while abroad

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

I agree completely. However: £3 for 5MB is 60p per MB, which is cheaper than 58p plus VAT. And 5MB isn't a lot to go through when browsing the web.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

It would appear that VM have gotten around the new regs by selling roaming in bundles every site i have looked at including Which are listing the same prices as are on VM's web site



http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240158967/Computer-Weeklys-guide-to-EU-mobile-roaming-charges

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

Looking around a bit suggests that VM aren't the only ones that do this. On O2 you need to buy a 'day pass' at £1.99 which gives you an allowance of 25 MB. That's quite a bit cheaper than VM's £10 for 25MB, but it expires after a day as opposed to VM's three months.

So, it would seem that VM isn't the only one, which would suggest they aren't breaking the law by forcing you to buy a bundle.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

crafty little buggers aren't they ;)

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

They are indeed. But, in fairness, prices have dropped considerably from these extortionate rates of £5 per MB. £2 a day for or £10 for 25MB within 3 months for internet access abroad sounds quite reasonable. It's roughly 10% of what they used to charge for similar amounts of data.

Re: New EU regs on charges
 

In spain in the summer vodaphone were offering 100mb and 100 texts for 10€ on payg lasts for one month and unused allowance rolled over also 10€ for 100 mins or an allowance I cant remember for international minutes i think 60 mins