Schnitzel Republic: EU-Roaming Costs Free of Charge?

Saturday, June 4, 2016

EU-Roaming Costs Free of Charge?

A couple of weeks ago....the EU did one brilliant move (rarely are they capable of clever ideas, but this one worked). The EU ordered all cellphone companies within the 28 EU member states to stop roaming charges.

This roaming charge deal was meant to plus-up profits. If you drove across the border into France (from Germany).....your cellphone company could tack on some nifty extra costs.

A lot of Germans used to whine about roaming costs to Spain or Italy....when they took their vacations..

So the EU just ordered the companies to stop it.

This week I noticed at the Bahnhof in Wiesbaden this new sign. The cellphone company (Vodafone) put up brilliant advertising to say that EU-roaming is now inklusive and "free". To be honest, it's not a thing that they volunteer to do.....they were ordered to stop EU-roaming costs. Yet, in the ad, they will pretend to the naive German idiots.....they are offering this EU-roaming deal....free of charge.

How many Germans will fall for this? I'd take a guess fifty percent. That's how disconnected Germans are from the news and grasping the world around them.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About the Collection of Essays

First, note that this is NOT a blog....it's a collection of essays similar in nature to what the Greek Plutarch attempted to write.

Second: NO, there will be no Facebook connection to the essay collection. Besides the negativity with FB, there is just too much potential in the future for censorship with FB.

Third, this log of essays is written by an American (not a German). If you are a German seeking commentary written by a German, on Germans....look elsewhere.

Fourth, I will offer wit and sarcasm on Germany, Germans, Germanology, German political figures, German TV, German beer, German food, German humor (or lack of), German habits, German weirdness, German news, German autos, German brilliance, German stupidity, German customs, German Nazis, German history, and German stubbornness.

Fifth (new), the essays are not about ethnic pathways to your grandfather or great-grandmother who was German. It relates present day Germans. If you are trying to get some understanding to your ancestor who packed up and left sixty years ago from the old 'homeland', then this blog is probably not for you.

I was one of those Americans who did over twenty years of military time....married a German....and eventually returned as a retiree.

I'm one of the few who stood under the German umbrella.....paid German taxes for some years.....German social security.....and felt the various pains like Germans.

So, this is my all-purpose commentary essay, designed for non-Germans mostly (and those Germans who accidentally discover it). I tend to put German culture into the spotlight of sarcasm, wit and humor. I'm simply pointing out the richness and craziness of life in Germany, which even some Germans can't understand.

The amusing thing is that I'm merely repeating the exercise that Mark Twain performed in 1880, when he published "A Tramp Abroad". Various comments were dished out on the Germans....which apparently did not trigger any wars, chaos, climate change, or ill feelings.

Final note: I generally only delete comments that are spam-related, or hype over pure Nationalist Socialist agendas. I generally won't support one-sided arguments/agendas. I also don't think accusations of racism or nationalism are generally proven, and can reflect poorly upon the person making the accusations.