EC says roaming prices still too high

EC says roaming charges not low enough

A European Commission interim report on mobile roaming costs has said that prices charged by mobile operators for voice calls abroad are still not low enough.

European Commission digital agenda vice president Neelie Kroes said: "Even after the first rules on roaming tariffs and the June 2009 amendments to these, most operators propose retail prices that hover around the maximum legal cap."

Kroes argued that the solution is to increase competition in the EU roaming market. "This would provide better choice and better rates to consumers," she said.

Reiterating the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the commission said that there should be little difference between roaming and national tariffs by 2015 and consumers should see roaming charges disappear entirely.

Under the June 2009 roaming tariff amendments, the cap on the maximum price consumers can pay for these voice calls fell from €0.46 (£0.37) to €0.43 per minute from 1 July 2009. This will decrease further to €0.39 per minute as of 1 July 2010.

The capped price with regard to text messages fell by nearly 60 per cent to €0.11 as of 1 July 2009, and the prices operators charge each other for data roaming will drop from €1 to €0.80 per MB uploaded or downloaded in July this year.

However, the interim report's calls for increased competition in mobile services does not seem to square with its approval of mobile operator mergers such as that of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK in March 2010.

This issue is not addressed in the interim report.