Mobile phone operators slash roaming costs

By Steve Malone

Posted on 2 Jun 2006 at 11:34

Facing increasing pressure from the European Union, a number of European mobile phone operators in the European Economic Area (EEA) - which includes the EU countries plus others in a free trade bloc - have agreed to slash their roaming charges to subscribers who call from outside their home nations.

Seven companies have agreed to cap the average wholesale rates they offer each other for providing roaming services at 45 Euro cents per minute from October 2006 and 36 Euro cents per minute from October 2007, lowering current wholesale rates by around half.

Among those companies that have agreed to halve the price of average wholesale roaming tariffs are T-Mobile, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Wind, which between them have some 200 million customers.

In addition, the group will establish an independent body to monitor the reductions in the average retail price of roaming voice services among the operators. At six monthly intervals, this independent body will publish an index, showing trends in retail prices at an EEA-wide level. How the trends will compare with the EU's own roaming comparison data, established last October to name and shame the rip-off operators, remains to be seen.

Earlier this year the EU threatened to bring in tough new regulations forcing the companies to lower their roaming charges throughout Europe.

Recently, a second phase of public consultation on mobile roaming services has finished taking submissions and it is expected that the final document will conclude that the high prices charged for trans-Europe roaming are unjustified.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest mobile phone companies in Europe, notably Britain's Vodafone, have yet to offer to cut their roaming charges. However, before we all cheer, the intense competitive pressure on the mobile phone operators will mean that they may decide to raise their prices at home in order to compensate for the loss of revenues abroad.