How free is free roaming?
As we all know till now, since 15 June, in all EU countries, you can use your mobile phone the same way as at home. More about free-roaming below.
No matter whether surfing or talking, no matter if you have a flat rate or not, no matter are you in Spain, Italy, Croatia or Greece.
Now come BUT..
But supposedly – some telephone providers make the free roaming in EU countries more difficult and throttling the surfing volume. Why they are doing that?
For the providers, the new regulation means an enormous financial loss – after all – the new law is costing them.
Free roaming in the EU abroad: mobile phone operators automatically throttle the surfing volume?
According to the experiences supposedly not all hold to the new directive or offer free roaming. In particular, Germany’s largest network operator Telefónica (with 48 million mobile customers) and the provider Drillisch (about 3.6 million customers) with the brands Smartmobil, Maxxim or DeutschlandSIM are some.
On the other hand, Telekom (even in non-EU countries such as Norway and Switzerland), Vodafone (plus Norway) and discounter providers such as Congstar, Otelo or Klarmobil are on the other side: all network operators automatically have free roaming changed.
And on the third side: Telefónica (including O2 and E-Plus) however, makes holidaymakers roaming in the resort difficult – here, customers can only limited free surfing and phone calls. Specifically, as soon as the maximum surfing volume (for existing contracts) is consumed by a gigabyte, the speed becomes significantly slower.
And it comes even worse: customers of O2, who had already free EU Roaming, before the law change, don’t have it any more at same conditions.
For instance, contract customers who have booked the O2 Blue All-In L package will have four GB surfing volumes in Germany – but in the EU overseas it is only one GB.
This is three GB less than the law allows – after all, it means that the entire volume can be the same everywhere and can be used.
Drillisch, on the other hand, makes it clear that EU regulation should be implemented in full.
“The overwhelming majority of our customers have been able to use their tariffs in the EU and the European Economic Area without surcharges since 15 June,” explains Archibald Preuschat, from Corporate Communications at Drillisch AG.
Telefónica is tight about roaming advantages
The customers know nothing about it – because O2 supposedly conceal roaming advantages of the new tariff. Although the advantages and disadvantages of the poor tariff and the new EU tariff are explained on the homepage, only if you are actively looking for the topic and then the clauses are usually too difficult for people to understand them.
Read on to find out more about how you can best fight against phone ransacking. However, O2 is against it – allegedly customers in the telephone bill for May 2017 already pointed out. The spice of it: it is only in the small print.
However, if you would like to change your tariff now, you should think twice again: According to an O2 spokesman, the old tariff is still more attractive than the new EU tariff.
“The foreign data volume is not calculated for the domestic data volume, whereas in the EU tariff the foreign volume is always calculated.”
If you want to change nevertheless, because your one GB in the EU is too little for you, then this is very easy. To do this, you only have to send an SMS with the password “YES” to 65544. You will receive a confirmation SMS and can use the GB upgrade called “Roam like at home” abroad.
Smartmobil & Co .: “Europe package” – with less surfing volume?
Those who are customers with Drillisch have, however, even worse problem: Here, even with new contracts, there is only the so-called “Europe package” with considerably throttled surf volume. At Smartmobil it is even a quarter.
However, customers do not have to accept this – and may also seek a tariff change. But here, too, the customer himself has to become active on the homepage, in order to be able to inform himself about it.
Here the language of an “alternative Roamingtarif” – who wants to switch from this into a “regulated EU Roamingtarif”, can this at any time free of charge.
“Customers with an EU option can deactivate them at any time in their service world and then switch to the regulated EU tariff.”
Alternative Roaming tariff – really the better alternative?
But also the alternative Roaming tariff of smartmobil.de & Co. should offer considerable advantages.
“The Europe package can also be used in countries where EU regulation does not take place, especially in Switzerland, but also in Andorra, Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the Isle of Man In 43 countries, including some French overseas territories, “says Preuschat.
“The volume of up to one GB of the Europe package is not deducted from the booked data volume, but comes on top. In the plaintext: If a customer has a tariff with, for example, four GB of data volume and a Europe package, he can get five GB a month , Four GB in Germany and one GB in 43 countries outside Germany, ” he clarifies.
