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But apart from potential criminal use, these proposed changes should give the UK a competitive advantage over operators in many other European countries. The only impediment is the currency, as consumers in the Eurozone may find it unattractive to have to pay in sterling. |
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Contract users now still have their home bundle available and pay a daily fee on the first use of the day. That seems reasonable to some of them, and perhaps they can't be convinced that it might be worth a look around if their use is fairly modest. So for instance I've been with friends who have spent £60 for the last 3 weeks, OK for some but more than necessary for the less intense users, while I spent about £4 on a mixture of VoIP over WiFi and data and calls on a Toggle SIM, including that I could check all the daily and overall scores of the event, plus my emails, and some weather and news websites, for 3 pence of mobile data rather than 3 quid. |
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A system similar to the US might be sufficient, albeit it would probably be very hard to introduce? +3 (or +4) = EU (+appendages like Switzerland, Liechtenstein etc..., just like the US´s +1-system accomodates Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas etc...) 3 digits determine the area (aaa) 7 further digits are individual extensions (eeeeeeee) This way all EU (+appendages) #s could look like this: +3-aaa-eeeeeee 1000 areas of 10 million numbers each, altogether 10 billion #s. There are roughly 500m people in the proposed area, so that would leave ~20 numbers per person. If that´s not enough I don´t know. Especially since many crazy people (like me) who currently hoard multiple numbers wouldn´t have to do just that anymore. |
I'd appreciate a similar proposal, but it would imply the change of ALL the existing telephone numbers. :(
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Also it might bring some sense back into numbering plans: I´m originally from a town of 350.000 people (Bonn/Germany). When I learned what a phone is, numbers had 6 digits. That´s ~3 #s per individual. Later this was increased to 7 digits. Granted - faxes and offices... Maybe 3 #s per person is a little tight, but 30 per person must be enough... Nopes - new numbers were issued and now have 8 digits. That´s 100m #s (which could nearly accomodate all of China), or ~300 #s per individual. That´s just plain stoopid/unnecessary, or I´m getting above basic maths totally incorrect. |
OK, so this new rule passed another milestone and is definitely slated to take effect in July 2014.
By the end of this month, they will outline the specific implementation rules, so we should have a clear idea of what we should and shouldn't be able to do next year. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/ar.../roaming-charges-die |
Actually, there are two different things.
They do have existing laws to decrease roaming charges every year. But the EU commissioner wants to eliminate them entirely, which would be a big change, to set up one mobile market across the EU. The politicians like the idea but the mobile industry may not necessarily like it. This more radical proposal may or may not pass into law. The industry may lobby heavily against it. Then there could be all kinds of unintended consequences. The carriers make a lot of money on roaming fees. If they're abolished, their response may be to raise fees for other services. Here's a better overview: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05...?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |
So here are the prospects for EU commissioner Kroes' proposal to drop all roaming.
Bets on Europe Ending Data-Roaming Charges Exaggerated - Bloomberg Industry is against it but they've been against the price caps on roaming charges that the EU has been imposing for years. Kroes rationale is that the EU wireless market should be more like the US, where there Americans can use data throughout the country without roaming charges, whereas a UK citizen visiting nearby France would be subject to high roaming data and voice charges. EU is behind US and Asia in 4G deployments, partially due to price competition from too many carriers. Of course, on the other hand, US carriers charge higher prices for inferior coverage. The legislation has several milestones coming up including in September when the other EU commissioners would have to support it, then to the countries and then there could be votes ahead of elections next May (for the EU parliament?). |
I'm of two minds over this - while it's great that the ridiculous roaming charges for calls and data are being reduced, nothing in life is free. In fact, I think the price cap for SMS is already too low. The EU is not a comparable market to the US, because these caps apply to all carriers, including competitors. If price caps were eliminated, that would force unrelated carriers in other countries to carry calls/data at the originating carrier's domestic rate. This would especially affect carriers in countries that draw a lot of visitors. Something would have to pay for this.
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