The date for the complete removal of roaming charges in the EU is coming closer and a number of network operators have already started offering tariffs that include EU roaming. While some of those offers do include non-EU countries like Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, others do not. So what will happen in 2017 when there are no more roaming charges wherever you go on the central continent for everyone and not only for those with a special tariff, but as soon as you set your foot into Switzerland, your mobile data connection suddenly drops dead, unless, of course you pay extra!?
For some the answer will probably be “not much”, I’ll just pay extra as before. Most of us who use mobile Internet services on a daily basis, however, might suddenly think twice before going to Switzerland on vacation. France and Austria to the east and west are nice countries as well for a vacation. I wonder what kind of economic impact that might have…
But maybe it’s just a horror scenario and Switzerland and other non-EU countries on the continent will be included in the EU roaming-free zone!? I guess only time will tell.
I believe it won’t affect at all. Switzerland already has an such an extrem pricing Level, anybody who can afford this will never mind, the rest is already avoiding this country at all
Lycamobile.ch is already offering eu roaming at no extra costs, and some really good tarrifs. so for us roaming throughout the eu there are MVNOs thats are starting to fill the gap. the three major players swisscom, sunrise, salt, are charging stupid high prices for any roaming out of country. As for other eu operators, I would expect them to include switzerland within most of their eu tarrifs. As a lot already do… wait and see. 🙂
Basing your vacation plans on roaming charges? While this may sound crazy to many people today, I think this is a rather good point. Data connectivity is becoming more and more important to people very fast. And this dependency is only going up. Not down. There will be more devices and services depending on data connectivity in the future.
It isn’t even that much about money, but also about user friendliness and uncertainty. How much will it really cost, when people turn on data roaming? Does everyone know how to even do that? It is a hassle. And people don’t like hassle, when they go on vacation.
This won’t be an issue overnight, since people first need to get used to the comfort of free data roaming and need to notice the lack of it in Switzerland. So I expect the Swiss to at least follow the EU soon.