Brussels, 24/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Roaming requires sweeping reform: tariffs are excessive and consumers, who are badly informed, have no means of redress. This is the main conclusion of a hearing held on 16 March by the European Parliament's Internal Market committee. The experts invited to express a view looked at the situation in the Member States and stressed the issues of roaming, the term commonly used for the use of mobile phones on foreign networks. According to INTUG (International Telecommunication Users Group), the excessive tariffs on roaming communications are a “major problem”, and the system resembles “a real cartel” playing on obsolete European regulations in a market which has become more and more complex and reigned over by companies abusing their dominant position. Dietrich Beese, Director of the 02 group in Germany, says that the foreign operators dictate the price of roaming and cause the escalation of tariffs, only allowing the original operator small margins. Since 2002, agreements between operators and the use of new SIM cards have constituted a small degree of progress. Operators favour bilateral or multilateral agreements, however, whereas experts advocate suitable European legislation. The European regulators COMREG (Commission for the regulation of communications) also denounce the system's lack of transparency: consumers are badly informed about roaming and therefore have no means of redress. Reform of the telecommunications market is a priority, concluded British Labour MEP Phillip Whitehead, the President of the Parliament's committee on the internal market. Emphasising that this market “has been a bone of contention for a long time” and that there is a need to put an end to “this real extortion”, the MEP announced another meeting on this issue in May.