EU Slashes Mobile-Phone Roaming Rates
The European Union has dramatically slashed the rates that wireless carriers can charge consumers roaming across the EU's member states.
Previous rate reductions introduced in 2007 cut the cost of voice roaming calls within the EU by 70 percent. Under the new rules that went into effect Wednesday, noted EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, EU roaming charges have been reduced by a further 60 percent.
"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end, thanks to the determined action of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and all 27 EU member states," Reding said. "From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders."
The Downside for Carriers
Though the new EU rules are limited to reducing the rates that wireless operators charge each other, Reding expects the changes will make it much cheaper for roaming consumers to place and receive calls, send text messages, and surf the Web on mobile phones.
"I call on the mobile industry to pass these savings on to data roaming customers swiftly," Reding said. "The commission and national regulators will monitor data roaming charges very carefully and assess next year whether the roaming market is finally becoming competitive."
The new rules come at an inopportune time for the region's wireless carriers. The EU's earlier roaming cuts have already had a negative impact on the carriers, which previously had "made margins on inter-country calls, and particularly on data roaming," said Jessica Ekholm, a Gartner principal research analyst. T-Mobile said earlier this year that "lower roaming revenues and newly introduced regulation on roaming and termination charges had a negative impact on revenues."
The European Union has dramatically slashed the rates that wireless carriers can charge consumers roaming across the EU's member states.
Previous rate reductions introduced in 2007 cut the cost of voice roaming calls within the EU by 70 percent. Under the new rules that went into effect Wednesday, noted EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, EU roaming charges have been reduced by a further 60 percent.
"The roaming rip-off is now coming to an end, thanks to the determined action of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and all 27 EU member states," Reding said. "From today, all Europeans making calls or sending texts with their mobiles can experience the EU's single market without borders."
The Downside for Carriers
Though the new EU rules are limited to reducing the rates that wireless operators charge each other, Reding expects the changes will make it much cheaper for roaming consumers to place and receive calls, send text messages, and surf the Web on mobile phones.
"I call on the mobile industry to pass these savings on to data roaming customers swiftly," Reding said. "The commission and national regulators will monitor data roaming charges very carefully and assess next year whether the roaming market is finally becoming competitive."
The new rules come at an inopportune time for the region's wireless carriers. The EU's earlier roaming cuts have already had a negative impact on the carriers, which previously had "made margins on inter-country calls, and particularly on data roaming," said Jessica Ekholm, a Gartner principal research analyst. T-Mobile said earlier this year that "lower roaming revenues and newly introduced regulation on roaming and termination charges had a negative impact on revenues."
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