Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lmb 4003 days ago
Can anyone shed some light what happened to alternative roaming providers? [0] Seems like they are the perfect solution to affordable EU wide roaming, but nobody is doing it. Is there something I don't know that prevents companies from offering this service?

0: http://www.slideshare.net/Computaris/eu-roaming-regulations
2 comments
jackgavigan 4003 days ago
Well, the EU decided that it was going to ban roaming charges!

The only reason customers would sign up to ARPs is to avoid expensive roaming charges. It's been apparent since before the ARP/LBO legislation came into effect that the EU was planning to eliminate roaming charges altogether within a few years. So, potential ARPs were faced with the prospect of operating for just a couple of years before their market effectively vanished.

It also didn't help that the mobile network operators dragged their heels on entering into agreements with the ARPs that did try to enter the market.

link
kawsper 4003 days ago
My Danish phone company 3 (which does business in a lot of different countries as well) offers a service called 3LikeHome.

3LikeHome lets you roam in 18 different countries, the data used is taken from your allowance, and you can call home for normal price.

I am a dane living in London, and even though they say it isn't for longer stays abroad, I have been using my danish number in the UK for over a year without any issues.

I guess there is no reasons for alternative roaming provides when regular phone companies makes these changes themselves.

link
sorenbs 4003 days ago
Also a dane living in London using 3. It works great. Only downside is calling UK numbers at billed as if I was calling from Denmark.
link
Symbiote 4003 days ago
Did 3 work well in Denmark?

I'm emigrating in August, and my experience with Three.co.uk in London was terrible (congested network, impossible to load a map or email when I most needed it).

link
kawsper 4003 days ago
3 works great in Copenhagen and other bigger cities, I have had no issues at all, but I think it depends on where you ware going to stay.

I had issues in Varde (close to Esbjerg) a few years ago, where the connection was bad, but that might have been fixed.

They have a map here: http://80.251.200.40/coverageportal_dk (sorry the shady link, that is what they provide)

link