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Moriarty

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
436
208
ok, both his items were completely unrelated to one another, and just pointless in both regards.

But... 20 Euro for that??? That's like a 1999 plan for a lot of money and all we're ever told is how much better your plans are. $30- unlimited talk, text, data, 50 gigs of hotspot, and unlimited international roaming - 5 gigs at full 5G speed.

I was trying to draw a parallel between the USA and Europe. Crossing country borders happens just as often as crossing state lines.

It would be ridiculous if your phone plan wasn’t valid in the entirety of the USA. Likewise, it now seems ridiculous for a phone plan not to be valid in the entire EU.

About prices: it’s another 5 euros or something for unlimited voice and data but I don’t need that much. I barely use 6 GB a month.
 

obamtl

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2010
555
864
Speeds when roaming are terrible. VPN tunnel back to home network (they still need to sell your data wherever you are) and foreign network bandwidth allocations are parts of the problem. I doubt these tricks will ever be regulated.

Three UK Roaming on Optus Australia not only is restricted to 3G but is practically useless for browsing an Australian website because of the 4 trips across the planet. Get about 5K/s.

Local sims are still a necessity. Looks like esim apps are making this easier, not that it's ever been a chore going in a airport newsstand when arriving though.
Is this a particular challenge with Three and/or with Australia?

I'm a frequent traveller to the EU from the UK, on EE, and I get 4G connectivity with good speed and low latency. In the use case of travel within Europe, travel has been completely fine.
 

Admiral Fart

macrumors member
May 11, 2021
47
139
At the risk of interrupting a Brexit kerfuffle, I would happily pay the UK's £2 per day roaming fee rather than the extortionate roaming fees US carriers charge for Europe.
 
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maxfromdenmark

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2011
695
1,257
Copenhagen
First USB-C, now this. When will the EU ever stop it’s anti-consumer overreach that stops companies innovating.
What is anti-consumer in free-roaming for ALL Europeans traveling across all EU? I don't get your point. I travel a lot to meet my family, for tourism or shopping. There is nothing better than using my own phone like in my home country and I can call and text for free to everyone in the country I currently stay in. I don't even pay 1$ more on my bills. Is this something bad to me?
 

yellowbunny

macrumors 6502
Jun 27, 2010
291
456
You’re still missing the key reasons. Being in control of laws and not being dictated to by faceless, unelected bureaucrats. Some things won’t be as good, I.e. roaming charges, unless they can also be negotiated of course. Key fundamentals, such as sovereignty, will be positive. The number of times I’ve been lectured for voting Brexit because someone has to get a pet passport….. It beggars belief that people use these insignificant criteria to decide how they are going to vote on something as hard-fought for as sovereignty.
“sovereignty” 😂

On a more practical real world note, I’ve just returned from travelling to France, Belgium and Netherlands and EE let me use my phone as normal without any extra charges.
 

constructor

macrumors regular
May 15, 2011
206
464
Go have the same argument with Ukraine. EU = Russia without bombs
And that is why Ukraine has formally requested accession to the European Union? And pursued this course for years since they ousted Janukovich in 2014?

Because they know that's the same as Russia murdering their people and devastating their land?

Man, the Brexit delusion is as kooky as ever, and just as disgusting! 🤮
 

Munchio

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2015
25
2
UK
Check out SMARTY (they use the Three network). I pay £7 a month for unlimited calls and texts, and 8gb of data (you can pay more for more data, but 8gb is more than enough for me). Plus you get EU roaming.
 

Ingster

macrumors 6502
Apr 2, 2007
449
133
Leeds, UK
TBH most phone companies will still provide options for international travel, i'm on EE with the swappable benefits, and one of those is a roam free pass, I just swap out my apple arcade for a month when i'm going away.

It is a shame as all the phone companies initially said they wouldn't change the free EU roaming but one by one they have done so.

In regards to the comment on lightning cables, while USB C would be good IMO I think apple are reluctant as partially there will be a ton of e-waste created by all those lightning cables being thrown away, FWIW I think apple will remove the charging port altogether and go magsafe/QI charging rather than change to USB C. There are still ways around the ruling, the EU tried to do the same with micro USB several years ago, apple made a micro USB female to lightning male adapter to bypass the original ruling
 

Psychicbob

Cancelled
Oct 2, 2018
631
1,780
The European Union has open borders for its citizens and never in my life has anybody tried to force me to migrate anywhere.

That is such an egregious lie that it fits perfectly into the Brexit mindset.
Individual countries are forced to accept mass immigration. We are at polar ends of the political spectrum and will never agree on this topic.
 

niederrader

macrumors newbie
Aug 2, 2021
8
2
Germany
ok, both his items were completely unrelated to one another, and just pointless in both regards.

But... 20 Euro for that??? That's like a 1999 plan for a lot of money and all we're ever told is how much better your plans are. $30- unlimited talk, text, data, 50 gigs of hotspot, and unlimited international roaming - 5 gigs at full 5G speed.
So 30$ for 5GB in 5G? That‘s so Y2K…
That person has for 20€ 12Gb in 4G/5G and unlimited data at a lower speed after that. Most european plans have unlimited data (with lower speed when you monthly allowance is over).
 

MrMojo1

macrumors 6502a
Aug 25, 2010
600
698
New England
Really? I'm paying O2 £18/month for 100GB data, unlimited texts, unlimited minutes, EU roaming and international roaming, which covers many major countries (USA, Australia, UAE etc).
Rates in the US are very expensive and data caps are ridiculously low.
No US company offers a low price with 100Gb.
That’s a very good price for your plan.
 

cocky jeremy

macrumors 603
Jul 12, 2008
6,207
6,558
Okay let’s say you live in Texas, but you need to travel to New Mexico to pick up your birth control prescription. But your phone plan only covers Texas, so you’re hit with roaming charges as soon as you use data across the border.

So how is it a bad thing for consumers that there is a regulating authority which stops this from happening?

FWIW I pay €20 a month for 12 GB of data and 150 minutes of voice. I can go to Germany or Denmark or Italy and not pay any extra roaming charges. It just works. It’s good for everyone.
So instead, they should just give you zero coverage outside of Texas. No roaming charges. Problem solved.
 

constructor

macrumors regular
May 15, 2011
206
464
Individual countries are forced to accept mass immigration.
Member countries don't just share in the many benefits of membership, they often also agree to share responsibilities based on negotiations between member governments.

As right now many EU countries are helping ukrainian refugees by the many thousands – and the UK standing aside as usual and making it as hard as possible for any refugees to even live with relatives there, and the numbers are pitiful. But that shortsighted, narrow-minded selfishness and cruelty are just par for the course by now.

The block against roaming charges was just another one of those rules negotiated and agreed between the EU member governments and the European Parliament. Democracy can work quite well to the benefit of the people, but that is another concept that's alien to the UK nowadays.

We are at polar ends of the political spectrum and will never agree on this topic.
No, we are on polar ends of the facts vs. lies spectrum, which is why any agreement seems unlikely!
 

Psychicbob

Cancelled
Oct 2, 2018
631
1,780
Member countries don't just share in the many benefits of membership, they often also agree to share responsibilities based on negotiations between member governments.

As right now many EU countries are helping ukrainian refugees by the many thousands – and the UK standing aside as usual and making it as hard as possible for any refugees to even live with relatives there, and the numbers are pitiful. But that shortsighted, narrow-minded selfishness and cruelty are just par for the course by now.

The block against roaming charges was just another one of those rules negotiated and agreed between the EU member governments and the European Parliament. Democracy can work quite well to the benefit of the people, but that is another concept that's alien to the UK nowadays.


No, we are on polar ends of the facts vs. lies spectrum, which is why any agreement seems unlikely!
Open borders is not a lie
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,450
4,218
Let me give a example of how this "no roaming fees" works in the EU. I don't live in the EU but I am on holiday there. I got a 250GB prepaid SIM for 35 EUR and asked if I can use the GBs in the rest of the EU (they last 3 months, then expire). Well it seems that I can only use 22.8 GB in other countries, which is based on the price I paid (25EUR, not counting the 10EUR for the SIM card), not on how many GBs I have... (by the way I had to buy through a friend since they only do this for EU residents, foreigners cannot benefit from "no roaming").
 

constructor

macrumors regular
May 15, 2011
206
464
So the EU re-examines all their rules every ten years, or what is the deal here?
No, just some regulations have an expiration date built into them especially if the regulated field is expected to change significantly over time, so the need for some tweaks is anticipated.

In this case the regulation has had the desired effect and appears to be desirable for a longer term, so they've set it up for ten years from now.

Many other rules and regulations are permanent unless explicitly revoked, but it depends on the matter.
 

ApostolisApo

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2015
159
581
Gothenburg
As an innovating, working to improve the lives of every human dead or alive, corporate, I feel once again invaded and offended by the EU's socialist manipulations. Stop giving stuff for free to people!!11!
 
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