The Council has fine-tuned its position on wholesale market roaming costs. The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) reached an agreement on Wednesday 26 October on the caps that will be used to limit the prices used between operators, as well as on the sustainability mechanism.
Regulation 2015/2120 seeks to put a stop to the surcharges invoiced by telephone operators when customers are travelling in another member state as from June 2017 (Retail roaming). The Council also tasks the Commission with setting out caps on the prices operators apply between themselves when the customer is travelling within the EU and uses their networks (wholesale roaming).
As opposed to the €0.85 per megabyte (see EUROPE 11573), the EU28 opted for decreasing caps: €1 per megabyte in 2017, €0.85 in 2018, €0.70 in 2019 and €0.60 in 2020. They also supported the introduction of a sustainability clause, which is mainly addressed to operators in countries where there are many tourists. This clause will allow operators who do not cover their costs to apply surcharges, but the total prices imposed on another operator cannot exceed €0.85 per megabyte (the average cap planned for the first three years). The Coreper-endorsed document also includes a revision clause after two years. It will be put to a vote at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE) on 2 December with a view to beginning discussions with the European Parliament and respecting the June 2017 deadline for bringing roaming costs to an end.
The Industry Committee at the European Parliament is due to vote on the report by Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, Finland) on 29 November. Kumpula-Natri is proposing a wholesale price of €0.05 per megabyte and reducing this every year to reach figure €0.01 per megabyte by 1 July 2021. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)