I was quite surprised when I read that tomorrow, in an attempt to further push the single EU telecommunication market, a cap will come into effect for fixed and mobile phone calls from a user’s home country to other EU countries. I was aware that debates about this were going on but I had no idea this was already decided. How could I have missed that!?
Anyway, termination rates will be capped starting May 15th at 19 cents a minute (+tax). Still not cheap, but a lot of people will likely welcome this anyway as they are still charged well over a euro a minute when calling from their home country to another EU country an usually only find out when the next invoice comes in or their prepaid balance runs out a few minutes into an international call.
Personally, I’ve had an option for a number of years to include unlimited EU calling in my mobile phone flatrate and I make quite a lot of use of it. So I’ll still keep it despite this change. However, there’s a catch one has to be aware of! The Bundesnetzagentur (German Telco Regulator) points out in a press release that customers with such an extended flatrate have to actively inform their network operator between May 15th and July 15th that they want to keep this option as otherwise their option will be discontinued. Kudos to Teltarif to point this out!
P.S.: I assume that Switzerland, which is not part of the EU will of course not be included. A shame, but membership has its benefits…