RSSEU Passes Roaming Legislation
By Ed Oswald | Published May 23, 2007, 11:40 AM
Despite the protests of the industry, The EU said Wednesday it had approved a measure that caps roaming rates within the 27-nation bloc. Carriers have one month to comply.
Approved by EU Parliament, the legislation only needs to be approved by the EU's telecommunications ministers. Following the approval, the resolution takes effect June 29, meaning consumers could see cheaper rates as soon as August.
It will be up to the consumer whether to stick with their current plan or switch to new EU-mandated plans that include the cheaper roaming rates. Frequent long distance callers could save up to 70 percent on their bills.
EU officials point to excessive roaming rates as a problem for the bloc's citizens. A study found in one case operators were charging as much as 12 euros ($16 USD) for a four-minute call.
Under the new regulations, the cost of that same call will be 1.96 euros when the rule takes effect, and falling to 1.72 euro by 2009.
"Today is a good day for consumers and business travelers in the EU," Telecom Commissioner Viviane Reding said. "Europe's internal market will finally become truly borderless, even for mobile phone bills."
Such large cuts in roaming revenue could hit operators hard. As much as 18 percent of all revenues are gained from roaming charges, according to recent data. The GSM Association protested the rules in a statement.
"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," CEO Rob Conway said in a statement.
Why on Earth would they pass Roaming legislation now? Didn't that empire fall thousands of years ago? :)
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|Their roaming charges have been outrageous. But then only the caller pays for a call - the receiver does not - unlike in the US where both people get screwed and the real cost of the call is twice whatever you are being charged!
And this roaming model far predates the EU.
Roaming income has in large measure offset and subsidized the ability to only charge the caller and not the recipient.
I will be surprised if such an 'American' model of 'both parties pay for minutes' won't soon be on the horizon to recoup the lost revenue.
Besides, its not like the Euros have a reliable ubiquitous landline plant to fall back upon! They absolutely don't! Just witness the abysmal (a)DSL penetration, or Any dialup access to the Net', for that matter.
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|"unlike in the US where both people get screwed"
Actually, here in the UK, the caller pays the normal call rate to mobiles and the receiver pays for the roaming part. So BOTH the caller and the receiver get charged.
Interestingly, the EU doesn't appear to have referred to the even more outrageous charges applied to pre-pay or 'pay as you go' customers, whose call rates are usually more than double those of the contract customers.
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|Perhaps you misunderstood my distinction. In the US, both caller and receiver are charged for ALL portions, minutes and roaming. At least there users have the absurd charges 'distributed' 'a bit!' ;-))
So it seems that, at least in the UK you get a 'bit' of a break! ;-) (But I doubt you are dancing happily over that news! ;-))
At least in the US, the fact that both caller and receiver pay for all minutes helps ameliorate the roaming portion of the income a company relies on, and most offer plans that 'include' roaming. But in the US domestic market, there is often a more balanced distribution of the give and take of roaming charges, as many make as much as they give back in incentives. This is not necessarily true in Europe where the roaming charges are not proportionately distributed over the continent...
Continental originating users get charged both 'minute' charges and roaming. Including those who are traveling in the UK but whose plans are from outside the UK.
In fact, I was recently AMAZED at an ~ $150 charge for a ~10 minute call recently to my landline from a mobile caller from London (but who had their 'local' plan with Orange in East-Central Europe).
Seems to me that existing mobile cost structures stink everywhere.
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|I agree. For far too long the mobile networks have been screwing the customers wherever they may be.
Not helped of course by the ludicrous telephone number payments made to governments to secure 3G licenses (which hardly anyone uses due to the - get this - outrageous charges for content) and which they have to recoup.
So now we have a situation which the EU state is great for the consumer (ie - all the chavs on 18-30 holidays can yap, yap, yap a little cheaper) and which the mobile networks will be trying to cover the costs of in other ways.
Anyone care to wager that 'home' network call charges will rise to cover them?
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|"Anyone care to wager that 'home' network call charges will rise to cover them?"
A valid point! And a point about which the EU governing board is amazingly silent. In fact, the silence is rather deafening!
My guess is that they will have to, as they have depended so heavily on these charges as a fundamental income source.
The loss of such cannot be easily ignored...especially as many of the carriers are not making money in the western part of the continent, but are relying upon growth in the eastern countries for their revenue growth and what is in effect a subsidy.
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|"Anyone care to wager that 'home' network call charges will rise to cover them?"
A valid point! And a point about which the EU governing board is amazingly silent. In fact, the silence is rather deafening!"
- It's only a 'cap' on the most outrageous of these outrageous charges.
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|You know, the irony in all of this is, Europe's service, features, options and costs (Except for roaming) are still better than in the US!
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|1.72 Euros works out to .43 Euros or 58 US cents per minute according to exchange rate listed currently at google finance. 58 cents per minute is a pretty high cap for roaming. It especially seems odd considering the normalization of rules and regulation within the EU bloc which should make the costs of operating in multiple EU countries only nominally more expensive than just one.
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|"Besides, its not like the Euros have a reliable ubiquitous landline plant to fall back upon! They absolutely don't!"
Please explain what you mean by this. I live in the UK and we have landline phones everywhere - I don't get how we have some kind of deficiency.
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|Quite right too. Hooray!
If the industry insist on f**king about and f**king the customer in this obvious manner and refuses to reach a fair conslusion (it's not like this ripp-off hasn't been going on years already) then it's only to be expected that regulation should follow.
It's what Gov & (in this case) the (transnational) EU are for.
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