How much does it cost to call home from other European countries?
This question is a good example of what EU’s Single Market means to the citizens.
Let’s have a look at two neighbouring countries, Croatia and Serbia.
If I want to call home and talk for 10 minutes, I pay 67 cents extra for the call. If I want to make that same call from Serbia’s side, it suddenly costs me 24 Euros extra!
EU will lift all roaming charges from June 15th, after which there will be no extra costs form calling home from Croatia. Calls from Serbia will stay the same.
Whet’s the difference? Croatia is in the EU and part of the Single market, Serbia is not.
This is of course nothing compared to the mobile internet usage.
From June 15th, using 1 GB of mobile data in Croatia – or any other EU country – will set me back exactly zero Euros. But I really want to remember to switch of my mobile data usage when I move to the Serbian side – there, 1 GB will cost me 10 000 Euros.
No, there’s no mistake there. Ten thousand Euros.
Another example comes from the UK and Vodafone.
Call home, talk for 10 minutes
Croatia – no additional cost after June 15th
Serbia – 16,50 £
Mobile data usage (= internet), 1 GB
Croatia – no additional cost
Serbia – 2880 £
What will happen to the UK after Brexit? We don’t know yet. If Britain really wants to leave Single Market, they’ll also give up all regulation which comes with it. That means it’ll mostly be up to the foreign companies to decide how much the Brits will pay for mobile data or what kind of deals British mobile companies get. It might get surprisingly expensive – go ask the Serbians.
