Est. 3min 29-08-2008 (updated: 28-05-2012 ) Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: Français | DeutschPrint Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram The European Commission is considering imposing per-second tariffs for mobile phone calls across the EU in a bid to bring down costs for consumers and boost its popularity levels. As of 30 August, Brussels will also reduce the price ceiling imposed on roaming calls, while new caps on text messages are expected too. European consumers are currently billed for some 24% more than the time they actually spend on the phone during cross-border calls, according to figures released by EU telecom regulators on Thursday (28 August). The European Regulators Group (ERG), the body which brings together telecoms authorities from the 27 EU member states, said bills are also on average 19% higher for calls received from abroad. The gap is even wider in countries such as Malta, Austria and Poland, the figures showed. Martin Selmayr, spokesperson for Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, said the Commission considered the figures “worrying”. When tariffs are billed per-minute, a call lasting a minute and 20 seconds counts as a two-minute call, the Commission explained, meaning consumers are paying for seconds they do not use. Per-second tariffs would avoid these unbalances but are currently applied to domestic calls only. Asked whether the Commission intends to abolish per-minute roaming tariffs, Selmayr said: “It is difficult to do something at national level. If you want to tackle this issue you have to tackle it in the EU legislation. This is what the Commission will consider in the weeks to come.” The announcement will be made at the end of September or at the beginning of October, when Reding presents the so-called “Roaming Regulation II”, which could extend roaming caps “in time and in scope”. Telecom operators labelled the initiative “micro-management”, saying it would ultimately hamper competition. The Commission is aiming to prolong the current system of price ceilings for roaming calls beyond 2010. Meanwhile, a second step in the EU’s current roaming legislation will begin on 30 August when the Eurotariff will be lowered from €0.49 to €0.46 par minute for making a call, and from €0.24 to €0.22 for receiving a call. Prices exclude VAT. In addition, the Commission said it intends to put a price cap also on text messages. Despite strong opposition from the industry, Reding has already made clear that the measure will be applied, announcing price cuts of up to 70% (EURACTIV 15/07/08). In the meantime, ceilings on “data roaming” – the transfer of anything from video to spreadsheets – are still under debate. Industry sources point out that according to the latest ERG figures, prices for downloading pictures or news on mobile phones when abroad are decreasing. But the Commission underlined in a press release that the “cost of data roaming is still very high for many consumers”. Read more with Euractiv EU TVs choose European films over Hollywood European works are dominating the programme schedules of European television channels, with broadcasters preferring EU films and fictions to Hollywood or other extra-EU TV products, according to a report carried out by the Commission. PositionsIn a statement on 28 August, EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding focused on the new price caps due to enter into force at the end of the month: "The further reduction of the Eurotariff on 30 August will reaffirm the trend for lower roaming prices," she said. "The next challenge is now to bring about a single market for roaming text messages and data services. I count on the French Presidency and on the European Parliament to help the Commission solve this problem very soon." The GSMA, which brings together the main mobile phone operators worldwide, labelled the new hints of possible abolition of per-minute tariffs "micro-management" that "would risk further erosion of competitive differentiation in the market". According to GSMA spokesperson David Pringle, "billing increments are a point of differentiation that operators can use to appeal to customers with different preferences. For example, operators may want to offer some tariffs with lower per-minute charges, that are billed in 30 or 60 second increments, and other tariffs with higher per minute charges, but smaller incremental billing units (e.g. per second or per 10 seconds)". Unofficially, other GSMA representatives threatened "unexpected consequences" for consumers, who could ultimately see their bills increase for other services in order to offset the imposed cuts. BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, welcomed the Commission's intention to abolish per-minute tariffs. "It would be a very positive step," Levi Nietvelt, economic officer at BEUC, told EURACTIV. Nietvelt underlined that many companies in Europe adopted per-minute tariffs as a consequence of the roaming regulation, which meant that charges did not always decrease for consumers. As for the SMS price ceiling to be adopted by the Commission shortly, BEUC again showed a positive approach: "We are very much in favour of SMS caps. SMS is a mature market where prices are not decreasing," said Nietvelt. But on data roaming caps, BEUC was more cautious, favouring an information policy against bill shocks rather than price ceilings. BackgroundIn June 2007, the Commission introduced a regulation capping prices of cross-border mobile calls in Europe, the so-called roaming regulation (EURACTIV 29/06/07). The price ceiling was set at €0.49 per minute (excluding VAT) for intra-EU phone calls, such as from Latvia to France or from Italy to Germany. Domestic prices are left to the market or the regulatory intervention of national authorities. SMS and data charges, two important components of consumers' roaming bills, were not regulated in the first EU capping exercise. The modalities of billing, whether per-minute or per-second, were also left for operators to decide upon freely. But the Commission has already voiced concern on a number of occasions about the higher costs determined by per-minute calls (EURACTIV 18/01/08). Timeline Oct.-Nov. 2008: Commission to present Roaming Regulation II. Further ReadingEuropean Union European Regulators Group (ERG):Roaming benchmark report(12 August 2008) EU:Roaming Regulation(27 June 2007) [FR] [FR] [DE] European Commission:Second step pf Roaming Regulation(28 August 2008) [FR] [FR] [DE]
