BRUSSELS, Belgium—European Union telecom regulators today announced plans to force wireless operators to lower their international roaming rates within EU countries, with the goal that subscribers would be charged for calls made while traveling within the EU at the same rates that they receive in their home countries.
“It is high time that the EU’s internal market delivered substantially lower communication charges for consumers and business people traveling abroad,” said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. “A mobile-phone customer should not a charged a higher tariff just because he is traveling abroad.”
The changes would only affect calls made within EU countries.
On a newly launched Web site sponsored by the commission, average international roaming rate vary considerably. According to the site, the average cost of a four-minute call of an Orange customer from France who is roaming on T-Mobile’s network in Germany is about $4.83. However, if a German T-Mobile customer is roaming on Orange’s network in France, the same call would cost about $6.18; on Vodafone’s French network, the same call would cost about $4.78. According to the European Commission, charges vary from about $0.24 for that four-minute conversation to $15.76, depending on the caller’s country of origin, the country in which he or she is traveling and which country they are calling.
Reding outlined several points to a proposal that the EU will examine for reducing roaming rates, including addressing wholesale roaming rates, regulation at the retail level to ensure that roaming savings are passed to the consumer and the possibility of eliminating any roaming charges for calls received while traveling within the EU. Reding also proposed the “home pricing” idea, under which customers would be charged the rates they would receive in their home country, regardless of which EU country they are in.
Ovum senior analyst Stefano Nicoletti described the retail-charge controls as a “very intrusive way of regulating.”
“If they are going to be introduced, we believe they should be used as a temporary measure and withdrawn once the market shows more competitive behavior,” he said. “In the end, the best way to serve EU citizens is to make sure that market forces work effectively, rather then imposing intrusive regulation.”
