Comparison of international call rates within the EEA

May 22, 2019

Last 15 May, the new regulation of the international calls in the European Union came into force. These rates only affect the countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).

This regulation establishes that calls between the countries of the EU shall not exceed 19 cents per minute and 6 cents per SMS. It should be noticed that the European regulation does not include taxes.

Where are these rates applied?

These regulated rates apply to all the calls made with a land or mobile line and to the SMS sent to the countries belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA), that is:

Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Sweden.

Rates of international calls to other countries

The rates of calls to countries outside the EEA will remain the same. In addition, the European regulation includes exceptions to these prices when the customer freely chooses alternative rates that include calls to non-regulated countries (outside the EEA), but also to regulated countries (within the EEA).

Comparison

International call rates for companies

The aforementioned rates apply to individuals, but the rates for companies may be better, or remain the same, or as we have already said, ‘the European regulation includes exceptions to these prices when the customer freely chooses alternative rates’. That’s why knowing volumes thanks to a phone rate calculator or the integration of a TEM platform, will immediately allow you to know if new rates or those that operators may propose during contract negotiations may be advantageous by simply accessing to different call reports which indicate type of calls, the number of calls, its duration and time band… This includes the possibility of recalculating costs.