On Monday 26 September, the new rules seeking to prevent permanent roaming received a positive welcome from MEPs at the industry, research and energy committee at the European Parliament.
DG Connect Director-General Roberto Viola and the director of his "electronic communications network and services" department, Anthony Whelan, came to present the revised proposals for guarantees on fair use policies (see EUROPE 11629). They explained that the "roam-like-at-home" principle (being able to use your mobile in another country without having to pay surcharges) would apply by default as from June 2017. "Normal users will not have to do anything. When they travel, they will quite simply receive a message from their telephone operator", Viola stated. He also said that it would be up to operators to identify suspicious behaviour under the control of national regulators.
Whelan outlined the sustainability clause that operators will be allowed to apply on surcharges if their national tariffs are in danger of suffering from significant losses. He explained that the main aspects of this measure included the introduction of a 5% threshold for losses in relation to overall revenue, which could justify a more thorough examination by the national authorities. He also said that national regulators would have the possibility of rejecting this derogation if it created any competition problems.
In reply to a question from Vicky Ford (ECR, United Kingdom), Viola said that the Commission was going to review its impact study. "This will be done, even if we are not expecting major changes, because the economic impact is limited", he said. He then provided a commitment to provide further responses in writing to MEPs by the end of the week. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)