MOBILE TELEPHONY : EXECUTIVE CONSULTS ON REVIEW OF ROAMING REGULATION.

Ove the past three years, the EU has regulated the costs of mobile phone calls and text messages sent and received across borders ( roaming charges'), but this particular European market is still not competitive. Beyond reducing customers' phone bills, competitiveness was the ultimate objective of the 2007 regulation. Hence the question asked in a public consultation launched on 8 December 2010 by the European Commission: is it necessary to go further?

When she took over the Digital Agenda portfolio,aCommissioner Neelie Kroes laid down a broad goal to be achieved by the end of her mandate in 2015 - to reduce to an absolute minimum the differences between national and roaming tariffs in the EU. However, as of June 2010, it was noted that, while roaming charges had actually decreased in Europe, telecoms operators had nevertheless held their prices at the upper limits imposed by the EU for call costs in 2007 and for SMS in 2009. "Huge differences between domestic and roaming charges have no place in a true EU single market. We need to address the source of the current problems, namely a lack of competition, and to find a durable solution," Kroes said in a statement.

She added that the problem had "no obvious solution". The issue has already provoked heated exchanges between EU authorities and the telecoms sector which, in 2007, went as far as describing the EU's policy as being akin to that of the former Soviet Union. In its consultation document, the EU executive is nevertheless considering several solutions, from price regulation to "alternative structural solutions" aimed at improving the market's competitiveness.

The key questions asked include: Will it be necessary to continue to control the roaming markets after 30 June 2012, the date of expiry of the 2007 regulation, and if so, how? What prospects would result from its extension in terms of competitiveness? In addition, would it be necessary, as with calls and text messages, to control mobile internet costs (with Blackberry, iPod and other brands already dominating the smart phones' market)? Or, failing this, how will the latter market operate after June 2012?

The consultation is available ataec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/public_consult/index_en.htm

EU rules in force

The EU's 2007 Roaming Regulation introduced wholesale and retail price caps for roaming charges and included measures to increase transparency. In 2009, the EU amended this regulation to lower the prices of text messages further. The amendment introduced a Euro-SMS tariff', limiting the price of an text message to 11 eurocents (excluding VAT).

In addition, maximum wholesale prices for data roaming were set at 80 eurocents per megabyte as of 1 July 2009. From that same date, travellers' data roaming bill has been automatically limited to 50 euro per month excluding VAT (unless customers choose another higher or lower limit). Furthermore, operators must send users a warning when they reach 80% of their data roaming bill limit, and must cut off the mobile internet connection once the limit has been reached, unless the customer has indicated that he wants to continue data roaming that particular month, in order to avoid huge bills that have sometimes been as high as thousands of euro.

As far as calls are concerned, the price ceilings (lowered since 2007) were fixed in 2010 at 39 eurocents per minute for roaming voice calls made (excluding VAT) and 15 eurocents per minute for calls received.