EU sets limits on mobile roaming charges

 

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By Simon Aughton and Reuters

Posted on 8 Jun 2007 at 07:32

The EU has finally agreed limits on the cost of using a mobile phone abroad. European Union ministers adopted price ceilings established after a year of debate between the European Commission, Parliament and member states.

Current EU president Germany said that the new rules will slash the price of making and receiving calls between one EU country to another by cutting 'roaming' charges to a quarter or a fifth of what phone users now pay.

The roaming cap will be set at 66 cents (45p) per minute for making a call when abroad and 33 cents (22p) per minute for receiving one, plus VAT. The ceilings will then be cut to 58 cents (39p) and 26 cents (18p) respectively by 2009, after which the regulations will lapse, unless the EU decides to extend them.

The caps are expected to come into force by the end of this month.

'Today is a good day for Europe's consumers, because we hope that we will get the roaming thing finally off the table so that European consumers will be able to telephone cheaply during the holidays,' German Economy Minister Michael Glos said.

The mobile industry said that implementing the caps will be a 'huge logistical exercise'.

'In the timeframe they envisage, it will be difficult. A lot of people are going on holidays,' said David Pringle, a spokesman for the GSM Association, a trade body. 'Industry will have to grapple with it now.'

Things could have been worse. Last month the European Parliament voted for even lower limits, dropping to just 43 and 19 cents by 2009, which were themselves higher than earlier proposals.

The GSMA argues that prices were already falling and that regulation is 'inappropriate and unprecedented'. It claims that the fall in revenues will restrict the scope for operators to invest in new services and may force them to raise prices elsewhere.

'These proposals are designed to further a narrow, short-term and populist agenda and run counter to the wider interests of consumers, the business community and ultimately the European Union,' said GSMA chief executive Rob Conway.

While the new rules only apply to voice calls, the European Commission said that it will continue to monitor roaming fees for SMS text messaging, Internet access and push-email services for devices like the BlackBerry.