The European Union this week is imposing rules on mobile carriers that limit what they can charge customers for Internet access. The “roaming rules” let customers pre-set how much they want to spend monthly on roaming charges, which kick in when traveling outside one’s home country.
If customers do not pre-set their spending limit by July, operators will set a default limit of 50 euros, or about $65. Customers will be notified when they reach eighty percent of the limit.
The point of this, according to EU officials, is to protect customers against data roaming bill “shocks” which occur when they unwittingly run up huge bills surfing the Internet without first having the good sense to investigate what this long-distance connectivity will cost them, or simply turning the data roaming option on their phone to the “off” position.
To some degree there are limits on data usage in the U.S., as most carriers offer phones and plans with optional parental controls for limiting texting and other data charges.
We at Smartbookblog.com are all for cheaper Internet access. After all, it will be one of the factors driving smartbooks, which promise always-on connectivity. But I hope the U.S. does not take a page from the EU’s playbook.
I don’t want to see the U.S. government get involved in setting limits on access, largely because these so-called “shock” charges are self-imposed. If you forgot to turn off the data roaming option or didn’t buy a plan that included roaming, should carriers be responsible for your bill? If you streamed a two-hour movie on your mobile device while outside the country, and somehow didn’t realize you were making a long-distance “call,” are the carriers responsible for your bill?
It’s great that prices will drop for EU consumers. I just wish the government didn’t have to step in to save consumers from themselves.
Lisa
