New EU rules to slash mobile phone calls abroad come into force
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
BRUSSELS, July 31 (AFP): New rules aimed at slashing the price of mobile phone calls made abroad in the European Union come into effect this week, with EU regulators promising yesterday to name and shame non-compliant companies.
Mobile operators must offer EU subscribers tariffs of no more than 49 euro cents (66 US cents) a minute for cross-border calls within the 27-nation bloc, while receiving a call should cost no more than 24 cents.
Mobile phone operators had until midnight yesterday to offer the new so-called roaming rates and by September 1 must bring them into effect whether customers request them or not.
An EU commission spokesman said that the mobile phone operators who did not offer the new rates would be named and shamed.
"We won't hesitate to put their names in black and white," at the end of the week, after monitoring the implementation of the new rules, said Martin Selmayr, spokesman for EU media and information commissioner Viviane Reding.
Selmayr estimated that "the great majority" of European operators were implementing the new tariff rules, but laggards names would be posted on the European executive arm's official website.
A sector source said the Commission had its eye on half a dozen operators from France, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
The impact of the new Eurotariff will vary widely among the European Union's 27 member states because rates differ greatly from one country to another, which was the main reason the caps were deemed necessary.
Before the price ceilings, variations between member states could be huge with a four-minute call for a French customer travelling in Italy costing 4.72 euros while a four-minute call by a Cypriot in Belgium could set a user back 12.00 euros.
Also under the new rules, when a customer enters another EU country the subscriber will receive a text message saying what rate their operator applies there.
The ceiling for roaming services, which excludes value added tax, will be dropped again next year, falling to 46 cents for calls made and 22 cents for calls received and then 43 and 19 cents in the third year.
The Eurotariff will at first only cover voice calls, although the European Commission is considering extending it to text messages and data transfers.
It could also be extended soon to non-EU countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Mobile operators must offer EU subscribers tariffs of no more than 49 euro cents (66 US cents) a minute for cross-border calls within the 27-nation bloc, while receiving a call should cost no more than 24 cents.
Mobile phone operators had until midnight yesterday to offer the new so-called roaming rates and by September 1 must bring them into effect whether customers request them or not.
An EU commission spokesman said that the mobile phone operators who did not offer the new rates would be named and shamed.
"We won't hesitate to put their names in black and white," at the end of the week, after monitoring the implementation of the new rules, said Martin Selmayr, spokesman for EU media and information commissioner Viviane Reding.
Selmayr estimated that "the great majority" of European operators were implementing the new tariff rules, but laggards names would be posted on the European executive arm's official website.
A sector source said the Commission had its eye on half a dozen operators from France, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
The impact of the new Eurotariff will vary widely among the European Union's 27 member states because rates differ greatly from one country to another, which was the main reason the caps were deemed necessary.
Before the price ceilings, variations between member states could be huge with a four-minute call for a French customer travelling in Italy costing 4.72 euros while a four-minute call by a Cypriot in Belgium could set a user back 12.00 euros.
Also under the new rules, when a customer enters another EU country the subscriber will receive a text message saying what rate their operator applies there.
The ceiling for roaming services, which excludes value added tax, will be dropped again next year, falling to 46 cents for calls made and 22 cents for calls received and then 43 and 19 cents in the third year.
The Eurotariff will at first only cover voice calls, although the European Commission is considering extending it to text messages and data transfers.
It could also be extended soon to non-EU countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.