Wireless Carriers get spanked; FCC votes to reduce roaming costs
In a mixture of high-fives and "hell yeahs," people are rejoicing at the sign of things to come: lower roaming costs. Yesterday, the FCC voted to force mobile wireless carriers to allow competitors to roam on their networks, and offer said roaming at a "reasonable" cost. Of course, this cost will get passed on to the customer, but look for a considerable drop in "standard-fare" per-minute charges…some of which shoot as high as $0.79 a minute. Also on the vote was a requirement to automatically flip networks using equipment that is technologically compatible. Granted, no one really knows what "reasonable" will turn out to be, but we enjoy any vote that ends up (in theory) costing the consumer less dough.
P.S. The picture above doesn’t seem to have anything to do with roaming…however, it’s the first pic that comes up in Google Images when you type in "roaming charge." That made us giggle.
Is anybody still on a plan that has roaming charges? I can’t remember the last time that was an issue. From Nextel to Verizon those charges don’t exist.
Just because they don’t have the charge doesn’t mean they won’t choose to charge it. But good for the FCC doing something useful.
My sister has roaming charges on her Verizon bill even though the places she goes still have Verizon service, can someone explain THAT to me?
It’s still outrageous….ly expensive…ly outrageous.
VZW doesn’t have roaming charges unless you roam interantionally (with GSM more the standard in about 2x more who would want to roam with CDMA), you should have her check her plan. I roam more than half of my minutes and don’t see any extra charges.
just my two cents on wireless carriers.
http://bizarcus.blogspot.com
does count as a material change to my contract? So, maybe I can get out of mine??
Verizon CAN have roaming charges if you are on the original America’s Choice plan. The phone will indicate roaming. AC1 is at is also referred to was eventually replaced with AC2 which dropped all roaming charges by not letting the phone roam in areas that were previously roaming on AC1. So only people with plans over a few years old could be on AC1 still (I am, dunno about you but if I’m in the middle of nowhere, I’d like the chance to actually make and pay for a call than have no signal at all)
Funny thing is I though about that AC1 plan and the roaming, but was too lazy to correct my post, and didn’t think many people had AC1…well, hopefully there will be a price drop in roaming fees for AC1 people.
Pointless. Regional providers often survive mainly by roaming revenue, not their subscriber base. That tower you need in the middle of nowhere that costs a fortune to run, won’t be there for your next emergency. They may not be able to charge enough per call to keep it going. Most companies offer free roaming plans anyway, they just pay that roaming rate for you (included in your package price). Do you think they will pass any savings on, or raise the monthly cost to make up for any money lost in roaming?