Consumers of the Member States of the European Union (EU) are paying less to use their mobile phones abroad, with prices falling by up to 60 per cent since the entry into force of Regulation EC no. 717/2007 of 27 June. This is one of the conclusions of a study, carried out by the European Regulators Group (ERG) in conjunction with the European Commission and released on 04 October at a press conference attended by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media. The conference was also attended by Roberto Viola, the current ERG chairman, and by Daniel Pataki, chairman of the Hungarian regulator, which takes over the group presidency in 2008, both speakers at the ANACOM Conference on ''Regulating Convergence - Converging Regulation'', which took place in Lisbon on 28 September 2007.
The study shows that as of 30 August 2007, around 200 million consumers in the EU had already taken advantage of the Eurotariff (tariffs no higher than 49 eurocents per minute for calls made abroad and no higher than 24 eurocents for calls received abroad, excluding VAT) and that generally operators have been complying with the obligation to make the Eurotariff available to all their roaming customers from 30 July, in line with the entry into force of Regulation EC no. 717/2007 of 27 June. The study is based on the results of a questionnaire sent by the national regulatory authorities of the telecommunications sector to EU suppliers of international roaming services.
By the end of this year the European Commission and the ERG will have jointly moved on to the next stage of monitoring the EU Roaming Regulation's implementation, which sets out that customers should receive price information every time they cross an internal EU border. During October the ERG will start compiling detailed data on this matter, culminating in the presentation of a first full report to the Commission in December. The Commission is also expected to launch further studies into the roaming prices of SMS and data transmission.
Meanwhile the Commission is preparing a report, which it will present to the European Parliament at the end of 2008, on the effects of the Eurotariff's implementation on competition and prices of national calls as well as on the trends of SMS and data transmission roaming prices.
Further information:
- European Commission - Press Release http://www.europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1445&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
- International roaming tariffs http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/roaming
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Regulation EC no. 717/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 27.06.2007 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1025874
- Roaming https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=188342
