European roaming fee cuts (continued)

Just a remind of the story: for months, the EU Commission has asked European mobile operators to cut roaming fees inside the Union, because mobile phone operators are overcharging consumers. No reaction. Roaming fees account for about 10% of mobile operators' revenues, and in order to put pressure on operators, EU said that roaming fees should be cut up to 40%. So the impact is important. Some mobile phone operators have gradually started to voluntary cut their roaming fees, such as Vodafone with its Vodafone Passport service or more recently Orange. But the decrease is not seen as enough by the EU Commission and more important not provided by all operators. So the EU Commission has entered into a more rigid attitude to force operators to cut roaming fees and control prices. The Commission has elaborated a plan to be approved by the European Parliament and the European Council of Ministers. This plan includes the set up of a roaming-charge cap and a “home pricing” principle for mobile calls made anywhere in the EU. Of course, mobile operators are challenging the plan, on a plea of too much intervention, de facto price control, and revenue loss. They argue that such a move would force them to raise domestic prices or provide roaming at below cost. Lobbying is intense and the GSM Association added that a regular traveler would have an incentive to set up two mobile accounts - one with new, higher domestic call charges that will allow them to roam and another with today's lower domestic call charges that won't allow them to roam. Even some parliamentarians have expressed skepticism about the commission's plan.

What will be the final decision is premature to say, but consumers are upset with current levels of roaming fees.