Week 1 - 'Europe finally abolishes mobile phone roaming charges'

'Europe finally abolishes mobile phone roaming charges' -

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/27/europe-abolishes-mobile-phone-roaming-charges

Members of the European parliament have voted through new rules that they will scrap all data roaming charges within Europe. Now UK phone users will only be paying as much as they pay normally, instead of receiving any data roaming charges. Some mobile phone operators see this as a potential threat as there are no extra charges. The abolishment of roaming charges was not met with the universal approach however. However, roaming charges will not be completely removed until July 2017.

• “After 10 years of tireless fight, roaming is over. A victory for consumers and a stepping stone towards a truly European digital single market.” - Viviane Reding
• “The end of rip-off roaming fees is a massive win for British consumers. Driving down costs and making it easier to travel is what being in the EU is all about." - Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder
• "Three’s Feel at Home service has saved customers £1.3bn in roaming charges and has been used by over 2 million customers.” - Kester Mann, mobile operators analyst with CCS Insight
• “There may be a temptation for operators to raise roaming charges outside the EU to compensate for the decline in revenue in the Union.”

Undoubtedly, I think data roaming charges being abolished is a great thing for us as users but in terms of mobile phone operators and the revenue that they receive, it does disallow them for making any extra revenue. The amount of money that institutions such as Three make would not decline any time in the near future, therefore the fact that they are allowing data roaming to take place in Europe almost adds a positive representation for the institution itself as it would cause users of other providers to consider switching to Three due to the perks that they offer. All phone providers are in competition with each other, therefore having these added benefits would leave one provider more popular than another.