Mobile roaming
March 28, 2012
The European Commission and members of the European Parliament have reached a preliminary deal that aims to reduce mobile phone roaming costs when traveling within the 27-member bloc.
The EU, as spearheaded by Neelie Kroes, the commissioner for the digital agenda, has been working over the past few years to reduce the costs consumers pay for mobile phone voice and data connections when they leave their home country. Although the EU has imposed steadily decreasing price caps on mobile phone roaming charges, it still costs noticeably more when Europeans take their phone across the bloc's borders.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Commission said it expected the European Parliament to approve an agreement in May 2012, and to pass the Council of the European Union the following month, which would put the new rules into force by July 1, 2012.
"Consumers are fed up with being ripped off by high roaming charges," Kroes said in a statement. "The new roaming deal gives us a long-term structural solution with lower prices, more choice and a new smart approach for data and Internet browsing. The benefits will be felt in time for the summer break - and by summer 2014, people can shop around for the best deal."
Kroes has said in recent years that her goal is to eliminate roaming charges within the EU and treat it as a single mobile phone market.
"Finally, the EU Commission paves the way for real competition on the international roaming market," Björn Brodersen, the editor-in-chief of Areamobile.de, a German mobile phone news website, wrote in an e-mail sent to DW.
"Once customers make use of this new option there will be real competition in the roaming market, especially since no-frills providers, who will get access to mobile networks at regulated wholesale prices."
Roaming contracts and price caps
According to the new agreement, starting on July 1, 2014, customers will be able to sign up for a separate contract for roaming within the EU, which can be different than their existing domestic provider. The phone will be able to be set to automatically switch to this second roaming plan upon leaving the phone's home country. The Commission has also said customers will have the option to directly select a local mobile phone network in the country they are entering.
However, until these new competitive roaming plans are in place, the EU will continue to drop the retail price caps on voice, texting and mobile.
Under the new plan, which will take effect on July 1, 2012, mobile phone users roaming within the EU will not pay more than 29 cents per minute to make a call, 8 cents per minute to receive a call, 9 cents to send a text message, and 70 cents per megabyte of data used. By the time the new roaming plan takes effect in 2014, that cap will fall to 19 cents per minute to make a call, 5 cents to receive, 6 cents to send a text message, and 20 cents per megabyte of data.
Under the new rules, European mobile phone users traveling outside of the EU will also get a warning text message or e-mail when they are nearing 50 euros of charges for roaming data fees. Consumers will have to explicitly agree that they want to go over this level in order to continue.
But some lamented that it will take another two years to get a significant price drop.
"Unfortunately, the EU Commission will let another two years pass by until it really opens the roaming market," Brodersen added. "But on the other hand, without the regulator, there probably wouldn't be any cuts in roaming rates at all."
Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Sean Sinico