The European Union has taken another step towards ending roaming costs. Following retail prices in 2015, Parliament and Council representatives reached an informal agreement on Tuesday 31 January to cap wholesale market prices and gave their support to the idea of a progressive decrease so that by 2022 the cost of data transfers would be €2.50 per gigabyte (GB).
The negotiations lasted long into the night (see EUROPE 11715). By the small hours of the morning, however, reactions appeared relatively positive. At the European Parliament, the EPP, S&D and ALDE immediately offered their support to the compromise reached. At the Council, Coreper briefly discussed the subject at the end of Wednesday afternoon 1 February but a vote at Coreper is not expected until 8 February next.
A rejection, however, is rather unlikely insofar as the different institutions do not have much time. In a 2015 regulation, they made a commitment to removing the surcharges invoiced to consumers using their packages in other member states as from 15 June 2017. To achieve this, they had to limit the prices the operators applied between themselves when using their networks. Unsurprisingly, the three countries heavily dependent on tourism (and their respective MEPs) called for relatively high caps, while countries in the north, where unlimited downloading is widespread, called for lower caps.
Retail compromise
The negotiators finally agreed to limit the price per minute of calls between member states to €0.032 (as opposed to €0.04 proposed by the Commission) and limit the price of messages to €0.01. The big challenge in these negotiations, however, involved the price of data, which the Commission proposed to cap at €8.5 per GB for data transfers. The final compromise includes the idea of a progressive decrease, which was contained in the positions of both the Parliament and Council. It introduces a limit per calendar year (and no longer from June to June): therefore, as from 15 June 2017 until the end of the year, telecom operators will no longer be able to invoice more than €7.70 per GB. This cap will change over time: €6 in 2018, €4.5 0in 2019, €3.50 in 2020, €3 in 2021 and €2.50 in 2022. A European official explained that, “These caps are based on the prices applied by the countries with the highest costs, namely Malta”. The official also explained that the practice demonstrated that the prices applied were generally between 40 to 70% below the cap envisaged. The agreement also calls on the Commission to examine the situation every two years and to put forward new caps if needs be. It does not, however, retain the idea put forward by the Council and encouraged by Spain, for a sustainability clause that would enable operators who do not break even, to go beyond the said caps. During a Coreper meeting in February, Greece expressed regret that this had been left out.
Important parameter for unlimited packages
What has changed for final users? In practice, not a great deal because the end to roaming costs has been in operation since the end of 2015. The implementing act for a sustainable use policy adopted on 15 December 2016, however, defines situations considered as abusive and which authorise operators to apply low surcharges. It also stipulates that users who have unlimited data packages in their countries of residency should receive twice as much data volume in equivalent to their monthly contract on the basis of wholesale price caps. Now that the wholesale caps are known, this provision should subsequently become clearer: this means, for example, in 2018 the maximum charge will be €6/GB and a user who has a €30 package will be able to download 10GB of data for free before having any surcharge is imposed. The calculation is made as follows: the price of the subscription should be multiplied by two and the total divided by the cap price applicable to the wholesale market for the reference year, €6 in this case. According to our source, “This cap mechanism does not guarantee that the operator will not make a loss in a given month but in macro terms, there will be a stabilisation”.
Positive reactions
Monique Goyens, Director General of the European Consumer Office (BEUC), stated, “We are relieved that EU legislators have shown ambition to deliver on their promise to end roaming charges. This deal ensures that roaming without surcharges will become a reality in June. The price caps which where agreed last night have a direct impact on how much mobile data a consumer can use when abroad”. At the European Parliament, rapporteur, Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, Finland), as well as MEPs Paul Rübig (EPP, Austria) and Jens Rohde (ALDE, Denmark) all welcomed the compromise. Speaking on behalf of the Council, the Maltese Presidency also welcomed it.
A vote will now need to be taken at the industry, research and energy committee (ITRE) and during the plenary, as well as at Coreper and the Council, before the text is permanently adopted. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)