New T-Mobile Europe data roaming rates

[Ben]

http://www.t-mobile-international.com/CDA/news_details,20,0,newsid-6108-yearid--monthid-9,en.html
New roaming charges for data usage in other European countries
Thanks to T-Mobile, surfing on mobile phone and with laptop is not just quick and easy but also affordable. T-Mobile is reducing roaming charges for data usage in Europe and will implement a uniform roaming charge for data connections: Mobile Internet within Europe will costs just € 2 per megabyte, especially attractive for occasional handset surfing abroad. This is ideally suited to get the latest information for example from the web’n’walk portal, or check the latest emails. And there’s more: This price applies regardless of which operator is chosen, so no worries about accidentally roaming in the wrong network and paying unexpected high prices.

T-Mobile is also offering roaming services that are especially suited for heavy data users who need a larger data volume. With the T-Mobile Day Pass, for only € 15, customers can purchase a transfer volume of 50 megabyte – regardless of the network operator, worry-free.
Oo, I wonder (http://www.talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5018) what brought that on? It's progress, I guess. These 50MB limits are ridiculous, though, I mean fancy saying the €15/day tariff is suited for 'heavy data users'.

If Vodafone's £8.50+VAT/day wasn't restricted to its own networks then I wouldn't have batted an eyelid at this news. The networks need to move mountains if they're going to make a real go of mobile data, not molehills.

[Hands0n]

€2 per megabyte is still a lot of money. You could easily arrive back home to a stonking great bill. More work is needed across the board for flat-rate GB tariffs. Hopefully Ms Reding will not be sidestepped by such attempts by the mobile operators.

[Ben]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't go 'Wow!' at the news. I don't think Viv will fall for this one, either.

[N5LMD]

Hi,

I also think the real problem here is that the mobile phone companies are not really clued into what a megabyte or two is worth in "Real Money".
It sounds great to say that they are charging so much per megabyte but if you explain to someone that opening a few pages of Ebay will use up a megabyte or two really puts it all in perspective.
I have just opened the main page of Ebay, right clicked on my mouse and when you scroll down to PROPERTIES on the Menu that appears and click on it you see it takes 59605bytes of info to load this page.
You wont be long hitting your limit.
As expensive as the Internet cafes may be in the hotel receptions on holiday abroad at least you can see what you are spending instead of arriving home to a bill that you have no real way of guaging how much its going to be.
Many Hotels are now offering Wifi free anyway

[Hands0n]

What I find particularly amazing is that the GSMA and industry just seem to never learn the simple lessons of economics, even though it has been proven to them by their own actions with voice. That is simply when you bring down the price of a facility, and tell people about it, you will generate an awful lot more use and therefore revenue.

To be sure, the cost of voice calls need to come down even more which will stimulate yet more bulk use. These international networks have been languishing around being chronically underused for decades. With modern transmission technologies carrying voice across international boundaries is ridiculously cheap compared to the old analogue days. We are no longer talking across individual copper pairs crossing nations. But we have, until recently, been charged as though we were.

And so it is the same with Mobile Data. In the UK we have seen the public's take-up of this facility increase by thousands of percent. The stores reportedly cannot keep up with demand. How exactly has this come about? By simplifying and greatly reducing the tariff for Mobile Data to acceptable levels. Therefore, it is not a great stretch of the imagination to come to the conclusion that if the same exercise is repeated for International Roaming the same result will occur. People will use the networks more, they will pay the more palatable Roaming charges and everyone will win.

But for now International Data Roaming is being kept suppressed by price alone. One can only hope that the GSMA come to its senses. Instead of lobbying the EU to leave their members to their own devices the GSMA should be lobbying its members to drive down the cost of roaming and reap the financial rewards.