[Ben]

About time? Sounds hopeful... highlighting by me.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/10/roaming_regulation_plan/


The EU Commission is poised to make its long-mooted swoop on the mobile industry this week, forcing operators to cut roaming charges, according to weekend reports.

On Wednesday, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding will present the plans the mobile industry has been lobbying hard to have canned.

AFP reports that Reding will introduce measures to cap the price countries' networks can impose on each other at wholesale, and the charges they can slap on punters.

Analysts at Ovum reckon it'll mean calls within the EU will go for around €0.24 a minute at wholesale, while wholesale roaming charges for international calls will be capped at around €0.36 a minute.

The proposals will also include an end to the practice of charging customers for receiving calls abroad.

Reding says the current system is worth €8.5bn to networks.

Opposition from the industry has claimed that operators will be forced to allay the hit of losing the lucrative roaming business by raising domestic prices.

GSM Association CEO Rob Conway said: "It is inappropriate to regulate tariffs at a pan-European level as the commercial and regulatory factors in each national market are different.

"The mobile phone industry has a long track record of innovating on services and tariffs. The European Commission's proposed intervention will curb such innovation by limiting operators' scope to develop tailored packages aimed at particular customer groups."

In a recent speech, Reding countered: "Given the cross border nature of the problems, any type of legislative intervention by member states would be ineffective and would risk giving rise to divergent results."

The 25 commissioners will discuss Reding's regulatory scheme, which has found favour with the public, at Wednesday's meeting.

[Hands0n]

Lissen to those li'l piggies squeal :D They've stuck us for long enough. Pardon me for the complete lack of sympathy. If they really want to jack up their prices elsewhere in response to the EU rulings I do believe that they'll find out pretty quickly what "market forces" truly means. That is, unless they are allowed to continue to operate their cartel in their national markets.



The European Commission's proposed intervention will curb such innovation by limiting operators' scope to develop tailored packages aimed at particular customer groups."


This is enough to invoke involuntary regurgitation of my lunch! "tailored packages aimed at particular customer groups"???? WTF do they mean by that? Can anyone identify a single "tailored package" of international roaming charges that favours a "particular customer group"? And why would they do that even?

Why not [be truly innovative and] create a level playing field which actively encourages international roaming by everyone, everywhere? The GSMA completely miss the concept that would create undreamt of income by getting us to actually use our mobiles when we travel abroad. The PTT monopoly mindset is alive and well in those boardrooms.

[Ben]

According to BBC reports today the announced restrictions have been greatly watered down from the original proposals :( I didn't catch it all, but I'm sure I heard something like the incoming calls abroad clause was being left out and a 6 month cooling off period was to be granted before any changes would need to take place.

We'll have to see what materialises in print.

[Hands0n]

If that does transpire, I rather hope that it is merely the first swing at the mobile network operators. Also that the noise from them and the GSMA is nothing more than sabre rattling protest. And that the message sinks in, that they realise the kind of financial benefits they can reap by lowering their international roaming tariffs.

I am staggered that they have not grasped the simple economics of generating increased usage by lowering the cost. International travel and mobile phone ownership have never been as high as it is today. Yet the mobile operators are stuck in a 1980's time-warp. These same cross-network charges used to apply to fixed line charges. Yet look at the market today. Dramatically reduced costs and huge profits from increased international calling on those fixed line networks. The cost to call to the USA for 5p per minute is not uncommon now. But in the 1980's that cost was typically 75p per minute. Yet we don't see the fixed line networks going bankrupt. Their [apparent] cartel to international calls was broken long ago, and they have not only survived but new players have very successfully entered the market.

Yes, in respect of international roaming charges the mobile networks have a very long way to go yet.