Over the last few days, the proposed new EU mobile roaming regulation has come before the European Parliament and the Council. While many of the proposed amendments to the regulation are going in the right direction, the price caps are still much too high and the EU is risking destroying the business of small operators wishing to enter the roaming market.
INTUG and Europeans for Fair Roaming therefore demand that the European Parliament and the Council take the right decisions now.
The retail price caps for mobile phone users must be set at lower levels than that currently proposed. The targets should be:
- No more than 11ct for calls made by 2014
- Free receiving of calls from 2014 onwards
- No more than 10ct/MB for data by 2014
Furthermore, INTUG and FairRoaming.org warn against erecting high hurdles for market entrance and access to roaming services for small and virtual operators. Bengt Beier of Europeans for Fair Roaming stated:
“If the new rules make it too hard for new and small operators to offer innovative roaming services, there will be no competition and roaming will remain as expensive as it is. And even worse, the existence of small operators and thousands of jobs could be threatened! The end users want lower prices for roaming and the new regulation has to deliver these.”
Nick White of INTUG stated,
“These are extremely important issues for business users. If the regulation fails to introduce lower price caps, new low-cost roaming services and the freedom of users to choose their roaming operators, European businesses will continue to be seriously hindered in their ability to introduce innovative and more efficient cross-border processes. The absence of an international market for mobile services with the obstruction of MVNOs, can only be overcome by some form of structural change in the mobile market. The current situation with unjustifiably high roaming charges, especially for data, is damaging Europe’s competitive position and blocking investment in growth generating and job creating activities.”
INTUG and FairRoaming.org issued a joint statement regarding their concerns.
Read the full press release.
Source: INTUG
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