Why’s the EU soft on the data roaming racket?
One MB: UK price = £0.01; EU price = £1.00
Like many PBers I have a smart phone that allows me to access the internet, read the site and deal with email just about anywhere I happen to be. The more you have such a facility and the more advanced your phone then the more you use it.
In the UK my operator, Vodafone, charge £5 per month for a maximum of 500mb of data – that’s one penny per megabyte. But when, like now, I’m on holiday in Spain the thieving bastards esteemed UK company puts the rate up to £1 per megabyte. It’s the same across all the operators – if you want to use your mobile for data while abroard you are screwed.
That’s a price differential of an amazing 10,000% and this is in a country that is part of the EU where Vodafone is a leading mobile operator.
Surely one of the purposes of the EU is to stop this sort of pricing yet their actions have been pathetic. New regulations just introduced stop users from unwittingly building up big data bills but they fail to deal with the real issue – the huge price diiferential.
Is it any wonder that the EU is seen by many as inept when it allows this to continue?
This is one for you Vince.