THE EU’S PLANS to impose Europe-wide free roaming on mobile operators contain a number of restrictions meant to prevent mobile phone users shopping around for the best deal. The Commission has proposed Euro 4 cents/min, 1 cent/SMS, 0,85 cents/MB as wholesale roaming caps – still to be adopted by the Parliament and Member States in the current wholesale roaming review.
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According to the European Commission, the end of roaming charges will be secured via an obligation imposed to operators of mobile telecommunications not to levy any surcharge in addition to the domestic retail price on a roaming customer in any member state for any roaming call made or received, for any roaming SMS message sent and for any data roaming services used.
Operators will be allowed to place restrictions on customers call or data volumes during those roaming days, too, although those restrictions can’t be too tight. To help people who regularly travel between countries for work, the Commission says that as long as they log onto their home network once a day, they will not be included in the 30-day and 90-day limits.
This is to prevent SIM-card arbitrage, in which cards are bought in one country and resold in a country where prices are higher.
As such, people with contracts from mobile carriers serving Britain will likely be subject to roaming charges and find a quick trip over the channel to France more expensive than they were expecting if they plan to use their mobile. So remember this if you plan to switch contracts before your hols next year. The amount of roaming by these customers at domestic prices could be limited to the average amount they consume when in their home country, after which the operator could impose surcharges.
Today’s implementation act will be discussed with member countries and the EU’s telecoms regulator, BEREC, before being adopted December 15.
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It might also affect mobile investment in countries with high levels of migrant workers who might stick with contracts in their home countries. After using “roam like home” for 90 days a year, customers would be subject to additional surcharges on European Union roaming, but these could not be any higher than the Commission’s proposed new wholesale roaming rates.
