Roaming

In November we travelled a good bit more than usual. Randi visited and we went to Paris and Cologne. Then Jim and I went on a little trip to Austria to celebrate our 30th anniversary. Then I accompanied Jim to Scotland for a business trip so all in all we were out of Belgium several days.

Some time during the last of those trips, I began receiving texts from our cell phone company, in Dutch, saying my roaming charges were high. I had no definition of "high". That's all it said.

So naturally as soon as we were back in Hasselt, I went down to the phone company to assess the damage. Only in Belgium would the phone company not be able to see my bill online. Really? I would have to wait until it was printed and arrived in the mail in about a week. Seriously? Somehow the phone company could send me regular texts about my usage, but it isn't in the computer system. Whatever.

As predicted, in about a week or so, the printed bill arrived in my mailbox. Fortunately the damage was only about twice what it usually is - meaning instead of €60 it was €120. I was actually relieved. I hadn't used my phone all that much, but it was roaming just the same. I couldn't help but think . . . I go 30 minutes away from home and my roaming charges go from about 5 cents a megabyte to around €2.60 a megabyte.

That's right. Unlike the U.S., when you go to another country in Europe (equivalent of crossing a state line) you are out of your roaming zone. Way out. Fifty-two percent out.

I also learned some valuable information in this process. I may be the only person on earth who didn't know this, but your cell phone is equipped with an "off when roaming" selection. Duh. It's buried in the Options category - Mobile Network subcategory on my phone, but it's there just the same.

So I was happy to see that at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - the industry's largest conference (the one where Mark Zuckerberg dismissed Facebook mobile rumors - that conference) the chairperson of that conference said she may consider introducing measures to improve competition in Europe.

May consider. Well, that's something I guess.