Soon it will be cheaper to call from Norway to Europe
Free calling, data and SMS within the EU and the EEA have been included in the mobile subscriptions to the vast majority, but it still costs significant amounts to call from Norway to abroad.
For the benefit of Norwegian consumers, the Ministry proposes that corresponding maximum prices apply in Norway from the same time as they will apply in the EU. We are therefore pushing for this work already, “said Minister of Transport Jon Georg Dale in a press release.
The Ministry points out that the regulation could lead to more than half the prices of calling from Norway to the EU and EEA countries. They point out that international calls on average are three times as expensive as national calls, and an SMS to another EU or EEA country is twice as expensive as an SMS that is sent nationally.
For example, if we look at Telenor’s prices, we see that they are charging $ 4.99 a minute to call most European countries outside the Nordic countries, such as Britain, Germany and France.
The new maximum price adjustment will mean that Telenor must more than halve this. 0.19 euro plus Norwegian VAT will correspond at around 2.30 kroner per minute. SMS must also be halved in price, from today’s 1.99 to about 0.75 kroner next year. To the Nordic countries, the proposal is limited, at least for ringing. Here Telenor today takes 2.49 kroner per minute. SMS costs 1.99 there too.
Telia, on the other hand, is chopped cheaper, with 3.99 kroner per minute to the UK, Germany and France, and 1.99 per SMS. However, to the Nordic and Baltic countries, they include 1000 minutes each month.
The EU Council adopted the regulation on new maximum rates on 4 December.
