Brussels, 01/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, MEPs from the industry, research and energy committees at the European Parliament held an initial debate on the Commission's proposal for capping the high cost of mobile phone use when travelling to other countries in the EU. Before presenting his parliamentary colleagues with his draft report for the first reading, Paul Rübig (EPP-ED, Austria), the rapporteur on roaming, declared: “Although some operators have recently introduced roaming charges that offer customers more favourable conditions, the evidence remains that prices still do not reflect costs properly”. Debates focused on the regulation's proposed field of application and methods for calculating retail and wholesale caps. The parliamentary committee is expected to adopt its final report in April. The plenary vote is expected in May. A representative of the German presidency of the EU confirmed that the Council would attempt to reach a political agreement on this dossier in the first half of this year.
The Commission is proposing to regulate both the level of wholesale prices (price practices between operators) and retail prices (prices invoiced to consumers). It is proposing a double tariff to this end, distinguishing between roaming in a single country (a German tourist travelling in Italy and calling a number in Italy) and calls to other EU countries (the same tourist calling in France, for example). On this point, the draft report by Mr Rübig calls for a single wholesale cap, whatever EU country is called. The draft EP report, like the Commission's proposal, considers that the wholesale cap could be a multitude of the so-called average mobile termination rate (MTR), the per-minute rate that mobile operators charge each other when calls are made across networks. The Commission would be obliged to regularly publish the MTR in the Official Journal.
The European Commission is also proposing a compulsory cap for retail tariffs. The draft report considers that the “Euro Tariff” or capped retail price, should be optional. Although, according to the rapporteur, this Euro Tariff should be offered by all home providers, “customers may switch to and from the Euro Tariff voluntarily”. Every home provider shall also offer (in addition to the Euro Tariff) a fair-use, all-inclusive monthly flat-rate to which no charge limits shall apply. The flat-rate for roaming would also cover data communication including SMS and MS. A European Commission representative explained to MEPs that the goal was consumer choice for all and that the Euro Tariff would be the default situation, with an opt-out available for those who wanted it. Reino Paasilinna (PES, Finland) said he agreed but added that the new system should automatically apply to all customers. Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany) does not share this opinion. According to Alvaro, the EP should be in favour of an “opt-in” model, with consumers subscribing to their home operators' roaming plan and then choosing whether to switch into the Euro Tariff. Gunnar Hökmark (EPP-ED, Sweden) said that in the context of the regulation's field of application, “We should be very hesitant about entering regulation on the retail side”. He also stated that, “price regulation on the retail level has always had negative effects on the consumer in the long term”. David Hammerstein Mintz (Green/EFA, Spain), on the other hand, said that he was a supporter of regulation at a retail level but was afraid that the cap on tariffs, as it was currently being proposed, was excessively high.
Although the Commission proposal and the draft Rübig report uses the wholesale tariff as the basis for calculating the retail tariff, differences do arise at the retail level. The Commission has asked for the retail price for outgoing roaming calls to be capped at 130% of the maximum wholesale price and at 130% of the average MTR for incoming calls. The draft report has not yet decided on the price cap on outgoing calls but suggests that incoming calls should be charged at no more than a third of the cost of making a call. The Commission is proposing a six-month transition period for implementing the Euro Tariff price cap but the rapporteur argues that this is unnecessary: “Industry seems already to anticipate price regulation”. He concluded that, “a further delay is not justified”. The draft report draws attention to the aim of regulating SMS and other data communication services, which are currently outside the European Commission proposal's field of application. The Commission has said that national authorities should control wholesale and retail prices in these services, and inform the Commission about the results of all these controls every six months. If it turns out that the tariffs applied to roaming communication data services have not “decreased significantly”, the Commission will have to “assess the need for a regulation and…submit a proposal if appropriate”. (ol)