Brussels, 14/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 13 February, the Commission wrote to the Danish telecoms regulator, Danish Business Authority (DBA), to express its serious doubts about the compatibility with EU law of DBA's proposed regulation of text message (SMS) termination rates, the rates mobile networks charge each other to deliver SMS between networks.
DBA's proposal concerns the text messages sent to customers of the mobile virtual network operator Lycamobile (terminated on Lycamobile's network), which entered the Danish market in the first half of 2010. The Commission is concerned that the price control DBA proposes might be discriminatory as it treats differently SMS coming from operators providing telecommunication services in Denmark. Such SMS are subject to (lower) price caps while SMS coming from operators providing telecommunication services in other member states are not regulated.
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, said: “While I agree with DBA's proposal to regulate the rates of SMS terminating on Danish networks with significant market power, such regulation must apply without discrimination on the basis of the origin of the SMS within the EU. Any national price regulation must be compatible with single market rules.” Over the next three months, the Commission and the DBA will examine how the latter can amend its proposal so that it complies with European legislation. (IL/transl.fl)