Mobile roaming prices - Europe takes decisive action
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Posted Sun 28 September 2008 @ 7:36 p.m. by Ernie Newman
Grossly excessive rates for texting and mobile data across European countries are being dealt to, at last, by the European Commission.
This week the EC progressed its proposal to lop 60% off the price of SMS texting. Roamers who currently pay an average of EUR.29 (NZD.59) per roamed text will see the price reduce to no more than EUR.11 (NZD.22) from July 2009. The wholesale cap underpinning this will be EUR.04.
By comparison, Vodafone NZ customers pay a standard price for a text sent from overseas of NZD.80
This follows decisive action by the EC last year in which roaming voice call charges were reduced by 60% also.
The International Telecommunications Users Group INTUG - of which TUANZ is an active member - has welcomed the move.
Nick White, INTUG Executive Vice President, said “We have campaigned on this issue for nearly ten years and congratulate the European Commission for taking effective action to address this extreme example of market failure.
“We were one of the first organizations to highlight this problem, by publishing comparative rates for calls between countries, exposing a regime of pricing by all mobile operators, which was many times the underlying cost of the service.
"INTUG looks forward to similar action being taken by the European Commission to reduce the excessive pricing of Mobile (and Fixed) Termination rates, which are not subject to any competitive pressures. These represent a tax on cross border trade within the EU, damaging its global competitive capability."
Categories: Innovation | Regulatory | TUANZ policy | Wireless carriers