Latest News

EU sets data roaming reductions

The EU has set out proposals that will see lower data roaming prices when roaming in the EU. From July 2009, the maximum cost to send an SMS when roaming in the EU will be Euro 0.11 as compared to the average of Euro 0.29 at present. A price cap for the SMS wholesale price will also be introduced at 4 euro cents. The EU claims that some 2.5 billion roamed SMS were sent in 2007 making it a Euro 800 million profit.

T-Mobile is promoting its international bundles  available to postpaid subscribers only excluding business registered accounts for calling abroad.

Mobilkom in Austria with over 5 million subscribers and 50 per cent market sharelaunched two new roaming bundles called ‘A1 CALL INCLUSIVE’ and ‘A1 GRENZENLOS’. The ‘A1 cALL INCLUSIVE’ costs Euro 10.00 and gives 30 minutes of call time when roaming. The ‘A1 GRENZENLOS’ (translation: unlimited) bundle offers either 100, 200 or 300 roaming minutes for Euro 30.00, Euro 60.00 or Euro 90.00 per month for calling fixed networks in the 37 countries where Mobilkom has partner arrangements. The unused minutes are lost after the month. The service is a month-to-month option however, a customer needs to deactivate the service.

Reports in the German press reveal that O2 is to start charging its customers Euro 50.00 for moving to a tariff of lesser value. It is quite common that downgrading to a lower priced contract either incurs a charge or alternatively a subscriber can only do so only after x months, generally being six months, into the contract.

US MVNO Virgin offers better value for its post- & prepaid offerings including the messaging packs. Virgin was the first service provider to introduce messaging packs in June 2006, under the motto 'just a penny per message', the launch offers included $1.99 for 50 text messages; $4.99 for 200 text messages; $9.99 for 1,000 text messages. In March 2007, US operators launched SMS bundles at the time of the increase of the text message from 10 to 15 cents.

Virign subscribers will now benefit from the expanded off-peak calling times which will apply between 7 pm and 7 am (previously 9 pm) and all weekend. Under the old structure, the weekend minutes were capped at 2,000 for the unlimited package

M-Tel* has launched ‘M-Tel Free Surf’ a prepaid 3G tariff available to ‘Prima’ customers (prepaid). The tariffs which can be ordered via SMS – text to read 250 MB” or “25 MB  - are as follows:

The last six months have seen continued expansion of Data Centre space in Europe, with much of the growth coming from the established markets in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany. The degree of the increase can be seen from the effects of the Data Centre Price Tracker, where average carrier neutral space per rack has increased from 776 euro per month (July 2008) to 865 euro per month (January 2008), an average price increase of 11.5 per cent over the last six month period. 

In the last couple of editions of a Daily Mail National UK Newspaper, T-Mobile has been advertising its Business 1-Plan offering with the headlines:  

• Get double minutes for the length of your plan (this applies to those that commit to a 24-month contract)
• Calls to the US and Europe as part of your minutes (both to landlines and mobiles, share minutes, texts and data bundles between colleagues
• Free handset

Plans are available from GBP 10 per month to GBP 2,000 including 250 minutes and 50,000 minutes respectively. 18-month contracts offer 25% more inclusive allowance and 24-months double.