Getting message straight on roaming charges

A new EU website publicises high tariffs on using your mobile abroad, writes Laura Slattery

People whose fingers are permanently curled as a result of cradling their mobiles won't want to take the risk of not packing their handsets when travelling abroad, even if the alleged purpose of their trip is to embrace anonymity and forget the minor stresses of everyday life.

But if friends, family, colleagues and direct marketers call you regardless of the fact that you are following the Inca trail in Peru or sunbathing on a yacht off the coast of France - and you answer - then the minor stress that will await you on your return is a substantially higher phone bill.

The European Commission has accused mobile firms of charging too much for calls made and received while people are abroad (commonly known as roaming charges), and has launched a new consumer website to publicise the high tariffs.

A well-informed consumer is a well-armed consumer, according to Viviane Reding, the EU information society and media commissioner.

"At a time when we have seen in Europe so much progress in other telecommunications services, the cost of using your mobile phone abroad is hard to believe," Reding says. The commission hopes to encourage more competition in the market, as well as fairer and more transparent pricing.

The website shows sample roaming tariffs for mobile phone users in each country, based on a four-minute peak-time phone call. In the case of Ireland, the four sample countries shown are France, Italy, Malta and Finland.

Visitors to more popular destinations such as the UK and Spain have to make do with following links to the roaming web pages of the four mobile operators in the market: Vodafone, 02, Meteor and newcomers 3.

The commission also gives tips on how to keep roaming bills to a minimum.

The first step consumers should take once they have successfully reclaimed their baggage and found the airport exit is to switch their mobile network selection from automatic to manual and choose their operator's "preferred" roaming partner.

(On a Nokia phone, this can be done by clicking on the settings menu, then selecting phone settings and network selection.)

As the result of an agreement between the home and foreign operator, the preferred roaming partner will be the cheapest overseas network on which to roam.

It should ideally be checked on the operator's websites before travelling.

The preferred network may pop up automatically once the phone is switched on, but travellers may later find that their phone hops from network to network, their message inbox cluttered with gratuitous welcome notes.

For example, a Meteor customer who finds themselves in Finland will pay €1.92 for a four-minute conversation with someone who calls them from Ireland, if they have selected the preferred network, Aland. But if their mother calls them while the phone has strayed onto the Elisa network, they will pay €4.44 for the privilege.

The table shown, compiled by The Irish Times, shows the per minute roaming rates (including VAT) for bill-paying customers, based on calls received while abroad and calls made home to Ireland. Data calls tend to have higher charges than those shown.

The cheapest operator on which to roam is shown in brackets. Customers of new third-generation specialists, 3, however, don't have to bother with either manual selection or looking up preferred networks amid the packing rush.

The mobile firm has just one roaming rate per country, no matter which operator its customers use.

"That way there's no confusion for consumers and they don't need to spend countless hours researching foreign network prices before going abroad," a spokesman for 3 says.

But although 3 is the cheapest operator for visitors to the UK, it is expensive compared to its rivals for other European countries such as France and Spain.

Some mobile operators have special deals available to frequent fliers or, indeed, anyone in search of a better deal.

The Vodafone roaming rates shown in the table are its standard Vodafone World tariffs. However, for some countries, including most of western Europe, the operator also offers a package known as Vodafone Passport, which it claims combines simple charges with bill savings.

Under Vodafone Passport, users who register for the service pay a 79c connection fee for calls made while abroad, and then the same per-minute rates that they would when they're at home.

So if Vodafone customers are only in the habit of making short calls in emergencies while on holiday, Vodafone Passport won't be much use.

For one- and two-minute calls made from the UK it actually works out more expensive than Vodafone World. But a 10-minute call made while in the UK will cost €2.11 or 36 per cent less on Vodafone Passport.

For calls received, the only charge is the 79c connection charge.

Other potential cost-savers at Vodafone include its Ireland-wide tariff, which eliminates roaming charges while in Northern Ireland for a monthly cost of €5. Some older price plans like Vodafone Extra Globe, which is no longer available to new customers, also include lower roaming rates as part of the package.

Meteor customers, meanwhile, must contact the operator before they roam for the first time. People who have been on its books for less than three months need to call the firm at least a week before travel, register their credit card details and make an advance payment of €60.

According to Reding, there are some signs of competition slowly developing in the market, but not enough.

The commission has been investigating the high cost of roaming since launching an anti-trust suit against mobile operators in the UK and Germany five years ago. Other investigations are now under way.

Reding has threatened that if self-regulation in the market does not work, the commission will have to take alternative measures. In theory, this could include imposing price caps in a bid to contain and regularise roaming costs - a move likely to be resisted by the operators.

In the meantime, "unpleasant surprises", as Reding puts it, abound for mobile-addicted consumers who can't get away from it all, even on holiday.

The European Commission's roaming website can be found at http://europa.eu.int/ information_society/roaming.