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Comment by nimbix | Hacker News Reader

But be careful if you find yourself in Switzerland or Norway. It's easy to forget that those two are not in the EU and that can easily end up costing you a lot. I had a layover at the Zurich airport yesterday and I almost enabled data roaming which I disabled as soon as I left for the US... it was a good thing I checked the carrier text message letting me know that every MB of transferred data will cost me almost 9 EUR!!!

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> those two are not in the EU

Norway and Iceland are in the EEA, and Switzerland has similar trade deals. So, much EU law does apply to them. I don't know if the roaming law does.

It definitely does not apply to Switzerland.

This is in Italian, but Switzerland, Norway and Croatia are included. http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/impresa-e-territori/2015-10-2...

My carrier (3 in the UK) includes Norway and Switzerland on the list of countries that already are free to roam.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

I think Three is a bit unusual. They're not doing it because of the EU stuff. I know several people in Norway who use them as their only mobile service provider, by the way, which (being used to roaming fees) I found very surprising. They're cheaper and better than the two Norwegian networks, apparently.

Let me understand this, your friends are using 3 (based in the UK) as their service provider while they are living in Norway?

Potentially, the abolishing of the roaming laws will open up the European markets for the smaller service providers.

Bingo. That's why this got through. If there's one thing the EU takes seriously it's the "common market": trying to ensure that companies across the EU can sell equally into all countries.

3 isn't only based on the UK, it's also one of the major carriers in Denmark (3.dk).

edit: according to wikipedia they're a carrier in: Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Exactly.

Just took a look. Sadly they do not roam to Germany, as they are oftentimes cheaper (on a first glance) then our local market-players.

So no British data plan for me, sadly.

Danish 3 roams to Germany[1]. You'll need to sweet-talk someone with a residence here into creating a contract for you though.

[1] https://www.3.dk/abonnementer/fordele/3likehome/

Good to know. Thanks a lot.

I can't imagine that being the fault of anything other than your carrier -- I'm Norwegian, and I don't think I pay any more for roaming (about 0.05 USD per MB) in the EU than EU citizens do. I visited Switzerland a few years back, and I don't remember roaming charges being much higher than in Germany or France.

Norway is part of the EU inner market. So this regulation will be applicable for it as well.

Better use the free WIFI next time (1hour in Zurich airport)

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