The law project that Reding will present on 12 July 2006 is likely to be a climbdown from the Commissioner's former position that mobile phone calls abroad must not be more expensive than within one's own country. The latest draft would allow operators to charge extra for handing over the call operators in different countries, but it regulates the prices that may be charged for the service.
The regulation is set to limit operators' profit margin for international calls to 30%, 3 to 4% more than for domestic calls. Currently, Reding says, operators are making profit margins of up to 400% for certain kinds of international call handling.
The watering-down is in part due to heavy resistance form the industry, which is organised in the GSM Association (GSMA). Operators called the Commission's latest proposal "flawed" and claimed they have already made efforts to bring down prices themselves.
But Reding was also pressed by fellow commissioners to water down her former proposal. Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Günter Verheugen, in charge of Enterprise and Industry, and Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson are said to oppose the plans.
Member States' regulatory authorities, which are brought together in the European Regulators' Group, support the Commission's approach, but cited "specific concerns about the form of retail regulation proposed by the Commission". Consequently, regulators think that regulation should take place only on the wholesale level, not on the level of retail prices. This would also be in line with the approach the Commission has chosen for the review of the Regulatory Framework for telecommunication.
