Ignoring calls by Vodafone for a moratorium on mobile roaming...

Ignoring calls by Vodafone for a moratorium on mobile roaming regulation, the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee on Tuesday backed European Commission-proposed rules intended to cap data roaming charges, cut costs for calls and texts, and let consumers buy cross-border roaming services from suppliers outside their home countries. The legislative report, authored by Angelika Niebler of Germany and the European People’s Party, sets lower retail price caps than the EC, aiming for a rate of euro 0.15 ($0.20) per minute for outgoing voice calls; euro 0.05 per minute for incoming voice calls; euro 0.05 per text message; and euro 0.20 per megabyte for data roaming, starting in July 2014. The report recommends requiring mobile operators to offer roaming services separate from domestic contracts beginning in March 2014. Home providers will have to notify customers of that right and switching to an alternative provider must be free. Domestic mobile operators will have to allow customers to access mobile local data services temporarily while abroad, akin to using a Wi-Fi hotspot, without having to unsubscribe from their existing data roaming contract or arrangement and while keeping their mobile number, the report said. Independent mobile virtual network operators complained earlier this month that the low ceilings proposed by lawmakers will squeeze them out of the mobile roaming market (CD Feb 9 p15). The new rules could see plenary action in April, the committee said. Tuesday’s vote was “another stepping stone towards better protection against excessive roaming charges in the EU,” said European Consumers’ Organization Director General Monique Goyens. “But we haven’t crossed the finish line yet.” While roaming calls and SMS costs are being driven down, “we should not see a lava lamp effect” where prices are hiked elsewhere, such as for data or national calls, she said. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes meanwhile slammed Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao for saying, at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, that there should be a regulatory moratorium on roaming ceilings. Colao warned that unless the EU stops imposing prices cuts, mobile companies will slash investment in networks, The Guardian reported. Moves to regulate roaming charges are creating a “heaven or a hell scenario,” Colao was quoted as saying. The hell scenario is operators losing hundreds of millions in revenue to mobile termination rates and reducing their spending on networks, jettisoning jobs in the telecom, media, entertainment and applications-development sectors, he said. “Message to Vittorio and Vodafone: I call your bluff, and indeed do not respond well to threats,” Kroes said. The EC is on the side of Vodafone’s customers, she said, reminding the company that it’s also trying to get the mobile industry more spectrum and a bigger market.