Slashed roaming charges in place for August
Rating: you can’t please all the people all the time
By Annie Turner
The Ministers have endorsed the decision adopted by the European Council on 7 June to cap roaming charges within the European Union.
This means that outgoing calls will be capped at EUR 0.49 and EUR0.24 for incoming calls as soon as the regulation is published, which will be in time for many Europeans’ holidays in August. Next year this will fall to EUR 0.46 and EUR 0.22 for incoming calls, falling again in 2009 to EUR 0.43 and EUR 0.19 for incoming calls.
The wholesale rate that network operators charge each other to connect a call will be limited to EUR 0.30 a minute in the first year and EUR 0.26 in 2009.
The relative speed of the getting this regulation agreed is a considerable triumph for the EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, but the GSM Association which represents some 700 mobile operators is less enthusiastic. A spokesperson claimed the regulation was “unnecessary” and “designed to further a narrow, short-term and populist agenda and run counter to the wider interests of consumers, the business community and ultimately the European Union”.
However, the European Consumers’ Organisation complained that the price caps were too high.
Operators are likely to hike roaming prices in other parts of the world to recoup some of their lost income and no doubt will enjoy blaming Commissioner Reding when customers complain.
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