Who pays what when you call someone Roaming outside your home country?

Posted by sunnychad
Hi all,

I am in the UK so please change the country to suit yourself.

I have today been astounded by O2 yet again. I was told that if you call a UK mobile number that is roaming abroad, you will get charged for the cost of carrying the call to the destination. The receiver of the call will also be charged. In other words if A (UK mobile number in the UK) calls B (a UK mobile number roaming in Germany), B gets charged as we all know but A will be charged over and above the cost of the UK call or inclusive miunutes. Not just the cost of calling B (whether inclusive minutes or p/min) but also the cost of calling abroad. I spoke to 2 people at O2 this morning and they both said the same.

Surely this is WRONG!!!

Posted by neonismo
Generally, both parties will pay for the call. The originator pays normal rates, while the roaming recipient pays for the foriegn carrier to recieve the call. Add on to this the premium charge your provider forks out to you for the roaming agreements between telcos. In the end you've got a nice business model to print money. No wonder the telco's are loving GSM. :-)

Posted by sunnychad
Agreed the originator pays normal rates, but according to O2 customer service, the originator pays for the leg of teh call being taken abroad. The recipient also pays for receiving the call. I know this is wrong, but the monkeys I spoke to today, swore by it.

Posted by neonismo
Oh yeah, in Australia the originator pays normal rates. The extra cost is at the roamer's expense. Recently in China I recieved a call that cost *me* $80!

Posted by Aivar
I'm client of Estonian operator EMT. In Latvia and Lithuania (our neighbour countries) answering phone calls is free of charge for EMT clients.

[ This Message was edited by: Aivar on 2004-10-12 08:00 ]

Posted by Vlammetje
I'm in Holland. Accepting calls inland is free of charge, accepting calls when roaming charges the receiver of the call. The caller (calling from Holland) pays the normal rate for a call withing the country to a cell phone.

Posted by BobaFett
Same here in hungary, only that person pays at rec calls who is roaming, the caller pays the same, cos he doesnt use a foreign system. If i call holland from hungary, i pay, if my dutch friend is in uk and use her dutch card, she pay aswell.