The European Commission will detail its plans to regulate the
cost of international roaming for mobile phone users at a meeting
in Brussels on Tuesday.
"The objective is to promote competition and to ensure that
consumers are not punished for crossing a border," said Martin
Selmayr, a spokesman for Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for
Information Society and Media.
Reding will reveal the plans at a meeting with Kip Meek, the
chairman of the European Regulators Group. The announcement,
originally scheduled for April, follows a six-week public inquiry
into the roaming charges, which is set to close Wednesday
night.
Since the Commission made clear that it is closely monitoring
the cost of roaming, some European network operators have announced
cuts in their roaming charges. Three network operators in Ireland,
for example, have abolished roaming fees for customers travelling
to Northern Ireland or the rest of the U.K.
The abolition of border controls between many European Union
member states means that for many Europeans, "The only way you find
out today that you have crossed a border is when your mobile phone
connects to a foreign network," Selmayr said.
The regulations will affect roaming charges for customers of one
E.U. network operator roaming on a network in another of the E.U.'s
25 member states, he said.
To back up its regulatory proposal, the Commission has studied
the economic impact on network operators. "Some say 10 percent to
15 percent of revenue comes from roaming," Selmayr said. "Everybody
is using speculative figures at the moment," he added, saying that
the Commission would publish its own estimates next week.
The GSM Association will file its contribution to the public
inquiry later Wednesday, according to association spokesman David
Pringle. The association, which brings together mobile phone
operators, would not disclose details of its submission ahead of
time.
On Tuesday, the Commission will also update a Web site where it
tracks international roaming charges to show how prices have
evolved since last year.
"That will allow everybody to judge whether prices have come
down or not," Selmayr said.
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