European Commission Roaming Regulations - General Information

General Information

The European Commission had repeatedly urged mobile operators to lower the charges for using mobile phones abroad, but they remained on average four times more expensive than domestic mobile phone calls. The data rates are 500 to 1,000 times more expensive than domestic rates. To highlight the continuing problem, the Commission launched a consumer website on roaming tariffs in October 2005. It exposed roaming prices of up to 12 euros for a 4-minute call. As even this did not change the pricing behaviour of mobile operators, the Commission proposed to intervene by regulating. The proposal for a regulation to lower international roaming charges within the EU was published by the Commission in July 2006.

After proposal there was a public consultation on the roaming prices where people could express their opinion regarding this matter.

Primarily changes of the existing situation were backed by Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. Finally, after debates the Regulation was approved by European parliament. The regulation caps the rates operators can charge each other while roaming in the EU and also limits the tariffs an operator can charge from customers.

The regulation entered into force on 30 June 2007. From this date on, mobile phone operators within the European Union were required to inform customers about the new tariffs (called "Eurotariff") within one month (i.e. by 31 July 2007) and provide an offer for switching to the new tariff. If a customer responded to this offer, the mobile phone operator had to switch them to the new tariff within at most one month. If they did not respond, the new tariff automatically applied the latest on 30 September 2007, unless a special roaming package applied. The ceilings or Eurotariff gradually decreases every year. Operators are able to compete below maximum allowed level.

A Eurotariff is available in all 27 Member States of the European Union and in the 3 European Economic Area countries. It applies no matter if you are a pre-paid or post-paid customer. Switching to a Eurotariff is free of charge with no effect on your existing mobile phone contract. Also subscribers receive an SMS when crossing the border to another EU or EEA Member State informing them about the price (including all taxes) for making and receiving calls. This message is free. It also contains phone number where subscriber can call to find out more detailed prices by SMS or over the phone. Calling this number is free of charge.

Another decision made in October 2007 specified that this matter has relevance for the European Economic Area (EEA) states. This means that the tariffs caps apply to EEA member states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) as of 1 January 2008. That meant that subscribers from EU benefit from the same price caps when travelling within the EEA and vice versa.

In the middle of 2008 the Commission asked for comments on the review of the roaming rules and their possible extension to SMS and data roaming services. 39 questions were raised about the general functioning of the roaming regulation as well as specific issues concerning:

• Inadvertent roaming or involuntary roaming, when consumers use their mobile phone close to the border of a neighbouring country and are connected to a foreign network.
• The effect of the rules on smaller operators and on domestic prices: have the new rules led to an increase in domestic prices?
• The issue of actual vs. billed call duration: has there been any change from per second to per minute billing as a result of the new rules?
• The need to extend the duration of the rules.
• The need for similar rules concerning data and SMS roaming services at wholesale and/or retail levels in light of current retail prices and market developments.

A regulation on SMS was studied by the EU Commission. Commissioner Viviane Reding gave operators until 1 July 2008 to lower SMS and data roaming charges. The Commission then sent letters to the CEOs of all European mobile operators inquiring about their SMS and data prices. The assessment showed that prices were still too high.

The Commission reported back to the European Parliament and the Council in the end of 2008 on the need to review existing roaming rules. To prepare this report, the Commission consulted the public up to 2 July 2008.

Based on this assessment and the public consultation EU Commission decided to introduce maximum price limits for sending SMS messages while roaming. The European Regulators Group (ERG) suggested a level between 11 and 15 eurocents.

A wholesale price cap on Internet roaming was introduced on 1 July 2009 and a price cap for end users is likely going to be introduced on 1 July 2012. Customers traveling to another Member State receive an automated message of the charges that apply for data roaming services.

Under new rules as of 1 July 2009, consumers also benefit from per-second billing after 30 seconds for calls made, and per-second billing throughout for calls received to ensure that consumers do not face any 'hidden costs' when they are roaming. This was expected to increase consumers savings by over 20%.

Since 1 July 2010, operators must provide customers with the opportunity to determine in advance how much they want to spend before the service is disabled ("cut-off").

The Commission, together with the national regulatory authorities, monitored the development of the prices. If normal market conditions had been established in the market for roaming calls, the regulation was meant to expire in three years from 2007 (30 June 2010). However, the Commission could also propose to continue to regulate the roaming market, if normal market conditions were not working yet. Under the latest proposal this regulation would be extended to 30 June 2016.

Following an investigation into the costs of the absence of a Single Market in telecoms, the European Commission intends to take further measures with the objective of, for example, ensuring that the difference between roaming and national prices should approach zero by 2015. A public consultation by the European Commission on future roaming regulation took place in December 2010 – February 2011.

The Commission suggested the next regulation in a report to the European Parliament, on 6 July 2011. The Commission wants to extend price ceilings on roaming services both at wholesale and retail (including for mobile Internet) levels. The validity of the new regulation would be extended to 10 years, with retail prices ceiling maintained until July 2016, and wholesale ceilings maintained until 2022 (but with stable prices over 2015–2022). The newest feature would be the introduction of preselection (including from MVNOs) for roaming services, starting July 2014. This scheme, according to Neelie Kroes is supposed to allow to reach the stated 2015 objective of a close to zero difference between domestic and roaming prices, even though the report to EU Parliament states, on page 9, that the scheme "will require time to produce effects on the market". In August 2011, the European Regulator, BEREC, criticised the Commission proposal as unable to bring a structural solution, in a report to the EU Parliament. In February 2012, the ITRE committee of the European Parliament voted for lower (and longer) retail ceilings, backing a structural solution, for which the technical details should set by the BEREC. Finaly, in March 2012, a compromise was agreed between the EU Commission, Parliamnent and Council, with lower retail ceilings than originally proposed by the Commission. The final vote in the EU Parliament took place May 10. BEREC is to organise the technical details (multi IMSI ?) of the structural solution (separation of service providers for domestic and roaming services) by the end of 2012, in order to be implemented on a compulsory basis in the EU in July 2014.