EU To Monitor Cellphone Bills For Abuses In Roaming Rules
BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission said Monday that it will monitor the cost of mobile phone use over the next 18 months to ensure operators don't unfairly raise fees to compensate for the price ceiling on international roaming calls, set to come into force this summer.
The commission also threatened to fix ceilings for the prices charged for using cross-border data networks unless operators slash their fees.
The commission will "continue to monitor prices, in particular for SMS and data roaming, to make sure consumers do not suffer in other ways," said E.U. Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, who has championed the price ceilings. "I hope that operators now understand the E.U.'s ability to act. My message to them: Move now and bring down SMS and data roaming charges down quickly, or we will be forced to also intervene there very shortly."
Earlier this month, the E.U.'s national telecommunication ministers cleared a EUR0.49-a-minute limit on the fees charged to individuals making calls across national borders in the 27-country bloc, and a EUR0.24-a-minute fee limit for people receiving the roaming calls.
From June 30 onward, mobile phone operators will offer the capped fee structure or "Eurotariff" to all users in the E.U. Users may choose between the Eurotariff or staying with their old pricing plan. Nearly all mobile phone users who don't make a decision will automatically be assigned the Eurotariff, except for those 10% to 20% who already have special low roaming price plans, the commission said Monday.
By 2009, the price ceilings are set to drop further, to EUR0.43 a minute for making calls abroad and EUR0.19 for receiving them. The commission says the Eurotariff will lower roaming bills throughout the E.U. by 70%.
However, mobile phone operators across the E.U. have railed against the measure, saying that setting retail price ceilings constitutes unprecedented government control on the market. They also warn that to make up for the loss in roaming revenue, the cost of other services may increase sharply. Mobile operators draw between 10% and 18% of their revenue from international roaming charges, according to a 2006 study by research firm Evalueserve.
The commission Monday dismissed these warnings, with one official in Reding's team saying that should operators be found colluding to raise prices for other services such as domestic or fixed-line calls, they would "be in very serious trouble."
-By Anne Jolis Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1488; anne.jolis@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 25th June 2007
