Reding Outlines Action On Roaming Charges

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

30 March 2006

The European Commission on Tuesday updated its website on international roaming charges, adding further weight to its proposal to bring down these charges by means of an EU regulation.

The updated website clearly shows that the price for a standard four-minute call has generally remained at the same high level across Europe since September 2005, and in some cases has even increased, despite warnings from the Commission to the industry that EU-wide regulation would be necessary if prices were not brought down.

“It is high time that the EU’s internal market delivered substantially lower communication charges for consumers and business people traveling abroad," explained Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.

“I therefore propose that an EU regulation be used to eliminate all unjustified roaming charges. A mobile phone customer should not be charged a higher tariff just because he is travelling abroad.”

Commissioner Reding this week outlined the main elements of the proposed regulation, which aims to bring down international roaming charges on the basis of internal market principles. These were:

• The new EU regulation should in any event address inter-operator tariffs (wholesale prices). The EU regulation would ensure that operators do not charge operators from other countries substantially more than the actual cost.
• To ensure that operator savings at the wholesale level are actually passed on to the consumer, the Commission sees also a need for regulation at the retail level.
• The new EU regulation could in particular eliminate all roaming charges for receiving a call when traveling abroad in the EU.
• In addition, for calls made while travelling abroad in the EU, the new EU regulation could introduce the “home pricing” principle. A mobile customer travelling abroad in the EU would always be charged only the prices that he is used to paying in his country of residence: he would either pay a local tariff when making a local call, regardless of where he is traveling in the EU (e.g. for calling a cab while traveling in Madrid); or a normal international tariff for calls made to EU destinations, regardless of where he is traveling in the EU (e.g. for calling the family back home while on holidays).

The Commission has already held a first phase of consultations on the general idea of an EU regulation on international roaming.

On the basis of Tuesday’s outline of the proposed EU regulation, the consultation will go into a second phase on 3 April and be open until 28 April. Following a detailed impact assessment, and subject to the approval of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the Commission could adopt the proposal in June.

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