The proposal on the modalities for roaming appears to have broadly convinced the different stakeholders. Nonetheless, there is still one remaining grey area: the wholesale market celings, which are also supposed to apply also to the retail market, are still being discussed. In the draft report published on 16 September, the European Parliament's rapporteur proposes very low levels.
Regulation 2015/2120 provides for an end to surcharges invoiced by telephone operators during trips to another member state as from June 2017 (roaming costs). It also tasks the Commission with presenting safeguards to avoid abuses being committed, which the Commission did on 21 September (see EUROPE 11629), and with establishing tariff ceilings for the wholesale roaming market. This market corresponds to the prices operators apply between themselves for use of their network when a user travels within the EU. Currently, when a Belgian consumer travels to Spain and uses their telephone whilst travelling, the Spanish operator makes the Belgian operator pay for using its network. The Commission therefore proposed, in June 2016, to limit these costs between operators to 4 cents a minute for calls, 1 cent for each SMS and 0.85 cents per megaoctet (Mo) of data (in other words, a 20%, 50% and 83% reduction in relation to the current ceilings) (see EUROPE 11573). This draft regulation is currently being discussed – not without difficulty – at the European Parliament and Council.
European Parliament. The draft report by Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, Finland) was published on the European Parliament website on 16 September. Overall, it emphasises data sharing and proposes a very low ceiling that will decrease steadily until 2022. The Socialist MEP suggests introducing, on 15 June 2017, a ceiling of €5 for 1,000 megaoctets (in other words, a lower ceiling than that proposed by the Commission) and reducing this limit every year, in order to reach a €1 for 1,000 megaoctets by 1 July 2021. "Data consumption is increasing rapidly in Europe. In the future, increased data use should lead to lower costs per data unit for operators. So citizens and companies should benefit from these reductions", the rapporteur explains. Her draft report also proposes to limit the average wholesale price to 3 cents per minute (instead of the 4 cents proposed by the Commission), the average wholesale price the operator of a visited network can ask from the roaming services provider. These amendment proposals are expected to be put to the vote in the European Parliament's industry committee (ITRE) on 29 November.
Council. According to information received by EUROPE, the member states are relatively divided on the issue. Southern European countries, which generally receive more tourists, are calling for higher ceilings. This is the case with Malta, Cyprus, Spain, Croatia and Portugal. However, they are encountering opposition from Scandinavian and northern countries (for example, Finland and the United Kingdom), which call for lower ceilings.
The draft European Parliament report can be consulted at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML +COMPARL+PE-589.188+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=FR]">http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML +COMPARL+PE-589.188+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=FR] (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)