No (see: Orange, Telefónica or Deutsche Telecom), but each operation will be its own entity with different regulations, different network and different numbering availability. Each country is its own market.
The goal here is apparently to have a single pan-european market, and allow cross-country organizations where e.g. O2 (Telefónica) would be the same O2 in every country where it has presence, without consumers having to pay for roaming and the like. An other goal is most likely cross-european number portability (e.g. moving from Italy to Slovenia, switching operator to a local slovenian one yet keeping the same number).
On the other hand, they also hint at a desire for US-type consolidations and this is pushed by big telco operators, that's extremely worrying.
There are some big ones like Vodafone, Orange, OTE, T-mobile, Telefonica, which operate in multiple countries, but I think even if you use Orange in one country, and go visit another country with Orange, you still pay for roaming, so I guess they are seen as different entities in each country and she wants the groups to be seen as single entities.
Hopefully this won't slow down competition like in US, and allow for price fixing.
Europe is populated far more densely than the US and there is plenty of competition in individual markets (e.g. Germany), so I doubt that this will slow down competition.
What I really hope it will achieve is abolishment of roaming in any particular form – I have a German contract with German O2, currently stay in the UK and am usually logged in(?) to O2 UK’s network. Yet this is ‘roaming’ and forces me to pay more for calls, while paying less for texts (€0.1 per text by EU regulation rather than unregulated €0.19 at home).
Nope. UK have Orange, Italy have WIND. They are the same company, have the same branding - same everything - but it still costs me an arm and a leg to use my phone when I'm in Italy.
Yes for mobiles. Licences are sold by each state separately. If they were sold by a new EU institution, there would be EU-wide operators instead of state-wide ones.
Comments
Are telecoms which operate in one country (i.e. Germany) unable to operate in neighboring countries (i.e. France)?
No (see: Orange, Telefónica or Deutsche Telecom), but each operation will be its own entity with different regulations, different network and different numbering availability. Each country is its own market.
The goal here is apparently to have a single pan-european market, and allow cross-country organizations where e.g. O2 (Telefónica) would be the same O2 in every country where it has presence, without consumers having to pay for roaming and the like. An other goal is most likely cross-european number portability (e.g. moving from Italy to Slovenia, switching operator to a local slovenian one yet keeping the same number).
On the other hand, they also hint at a desire for US-type consolidations and this is pushed by big telco operators, that's extremely worrying.
There are some big ones like Vodafone, Orange, OTE, T-mobile, Telefonica, which operate in multiple countries, but I think even if you use Orange in one country, and go visit another country with Orange, you still pay for roaming, so I guess they are seen as different entities in each country and she wants the groups to be seen as single entities.
Hopefully this won't slow down competition like in US, and allow for price fixing.
Europe is populated far more densely than the US and there is plenty of competition in individual markets (e.g. Germany), so I doubt that this will slow down competition.
What I really hope it will achieve is abolishment of roaming in any particular form – I have a German contract with German O2, currently stay in the UK and am usually logged in(?) to O2 UK’s network. Yet this is ‘roaming’ and forces me to pay more for calls, while paying less for texts (€0.1 per text by EU regulation rather than unregulated €0.19 at home).
> What I really hope it will achieve is abolishment of roaming in any particular form
I'd also like cross-EU number portability, I moved country a few years ago and had to change my mobile phone number, that was annoying.
If there wasn’t any roaming, you could simply keep your old contract?
Yes, but there may also be some sort of local operator with more interesting prices or offers.
Nope. UK have Orange, Italy have WIND. They are the same company, have the same branding - same everything - but it still costs me an arm and a leg to use my phone when I'm in Italy.
Yes for mobiles. Licences are sold by each state separately. If they were sold by a new EU institution, there would be EU-wide operators instead of state-wide ones.