Brussels, 10/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 9 March, the industry committee of the European Parliament adopted the report by Adina-Ioana Valean (ALDE, Romania) on roaming, by 21 votes to 2 and 18 abstentions. The report generally approves the broad lines of the Commission's proposal, albeit with slight differences for several aspects. On 23 September, the Commission had suggested review of the 2007 legislation that will expire at the end of June 2010, with a view to setting a new ceiling for the cost of calls abroad (“Eurotarif”) for the period 2010/2012 and bringing in a cap for text messages (“SMS”) (see EUROPE 9746). The Parliament's industry committee suggests three changes should be brought to the Commission's proposal: 1) per second billing from the very first second of a roamed call. The Commission had suggested charging per second from the 31st second. According to MEPs, home providers should not apply any initial minimum charging period; 2) a cap on inter-operator charges of 50 eurocents per megabyte of roamed data, when the Commission had suggested a €1 cap per megabyte. MEPs also want data roaming charges to be calculated on a kilobyte basis in order to avoid hidden costs; 3) ending the whole roaming legislation in June 2012 while the Commission had proposed a review in 2013. MEPs ask the Commission to examine, in 2012, whether consumers have benefited from real reductions and whether small operators have been able to benefit from a better competitive situation. They also call on it to envisage alternative regulatory options to tariff regulation; 4) although MEPS agree to fix calls from abroad at 40 eurocents maximum (not including VAT) per minute and calls received during a stay abroad at no more than 16 eurocents a minute (excl. VAT) from July 2010, the industry committee is opposed to an additional reduction of these caps as of 2011. The Commission in fact suggested reducing the first cap to 37 eurocents and the second to 13 cents as of July 2011 then to 34 cents and 10 cents respectively as of July 2012.
As far as the price of SMS is concerned, the Parliament report suggests after the fashion of the Commission that a ceiling be fixed at 11 cents (incl. VAT). For voice calls, an amendment also indicates that, from 1 July 2010 at the very latest, consumers should no longer have to pay to receive a voice message when they are in another EU country. Concerning the “cut-off limit” that consumers could define in agreement with operators for the downloading of roaming data (i.e. to prevent “bill shocks”, when customers reach a maximum financial limit set in advance they would be automatically cut off from all data roaming services), MEPs give preference to a gradual approach whereby suppliers would warn customers by mobile phone, email or “pop-up” window on the screen when 80% of the agreed maximum usage limit has been reached. A second announcement would follow once the limit is fully reached, suggesting that the consumer should either continue (setting out the conditions for doing so) or end the connection.
A delegation from the Parliament headed by Rapporteur Velean will start informal negotiations with the Council presidency in the coming weeks, with a view to reaching a compromise on this dossier before the first Parliament reading scheduled during the plenary session on 21-24 April. If the Council gives its agreement with the text adopted in April at the EP, the new regulation will become effective on 1 July 2009. (I.L./transl.jl)