European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes today reminded the mobile industry that “Ordinary citizens and businesses cannot understand why operators charge at today’s high levels” for roaming services.
The Digital Agenda targets a difference between roaming prices and national prices “approaching zero” by 2015. Kroes clarified that while the target does not impose a specific mechanism, it will only be achieved if consumers have “rapid and easy choice of a roaming service at, or close to, a relevant competitive domestic price level.”
Vice President Kroes said that she is not satisfied with current levels of competition and prices, noting that, for example, retail data roaming prices did not match falls in wholesale prices in 2010, leading to “an average retail price that makes consumers’ eyes water. Frankly this is a nightmare for businesspeople, for tourists, for young people in particular.” She pointed out that consumers cannot understand how “less than 5 cents for downloading a MB of data at home can turn into €2.60 per MB when they cross an invisible, and mostly artificial, border! Don’t tell me that is all funding new investment in better networks; I can’t defend that to citizens. I can’t defend it for the simple reason that it isn’t true.”
The Vice President concluded by referring to the public consultation on the EU mobile phone roaming market launched today. This presents a range of possible policy options from purely structural (competition enhancing and access based) approaches to pure price regulation, with consideration given to whether longer term advances in technology (for instance concerning WiFi access or next generation mobile networks) may render the current problem obsolete.