Column by Stefan Meyerhans: When holidays abroad become a trap

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Roaming is still a living, money-eating monster. We, who are cherished, patronized and fiercely protected by local mobile operators, will still have to pay outrageous amounts unless we buy an expensive data package abroad or purchase an all-inclusive subscription.

Since most of us are now at home in the digital world, without a subscription or data package, in addition to actually taking a vacation, we are also taking a trip back in time to the analogue past. Failure to do this can be very costly.

Digital technology has long been the norm – in Switzerland and abroad: let’s think about plane, bus or train tickets, navigation, entrance fees, bike/car rentals, hotel bookings, parking fees, virtual queues, online transfers – and much more friend. Searching, standing in queues, asking questions, getting invited, looking for and buying plans and brochures is a thing of the past for most people. Many young people probably don’t even know what a city map looks like anymore. Or that you can also buy concert tickets at a physical location. Times have simply changed.

The EU took action and its citizens stopped paying roaming fees for a while. That’s why it’s probably only a matter of time before early innovators reduce or eliminate their offline offerings entirely.

For us, high roaming fees make everyday activities abroad a luxury that not everyone can afford. Especially the younger generation, the “digital natives”, often do not realize that there is a huge cost trap here that has already driven many people to despair and from which the Swiss telecommunications industry makes a lot of money.

Preset roaming cost limits do not solve the problem, since the amounts set by providers are often in the three-digit range. If you don’t actively change them, things can get very expensive very quickly. A proposal by Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (center), which would require the Federal Council to set a cap on roaming charges, was recently rejected by the responsible committee of the Council of States.

Switzerland is small, foreign countries are always nearby. In my opinion, it would be a fatal development if only some people could afford ordinary things. Something’s about to happen here!

Source: Blick