The abolition of mobile roaming charges as from the end of next year is the culmination of years of efforts by EU institutions, especially the European Commission, to bring down roaming tariffs and bring the Single Market in the telecommunications sector closer to reality.
In last week’s vote on the EU telecoms package, MEPs amended the text to ban ‘roaming’ charges (extra fees for using a mobile phone to call, send text messages or access the internet in another EU country) anywhere in the EU as of December 15, 2015. If roaming services are abused, however, capped charges could exceptionally be imposed, the MEPs said.
The EU’s crusade against exorbitant mobile roaming tariffs began nine years ago when the European Commission launched a consumer website to compare roaming tariffs. A Commission investigation found that on average call rates were four times more expensive and data rates were between 500 and 1,000 times more expensive than domestic rates. A four-minute call outside the home country could cost up to €12.
EU regulation on lower roaming tariffs entered into force on June 30, 2007 and the so-called ‘eurotariff’ was introduced to cap roaming rates across the EU. Regulations also tried to minimise bill shocks, whereby a user is not aware of the fact that a high bill will be incurred if the usage continues at the same rate.
The effects of this intervention were felt immediately across the EU, not least in Malta and roaming activity increase significantly. In terms of minutes consumed, activity by the Maltese mobile user abroad and by tourists coming to Malta increased from just 25.8 million minutes in 2005 to 42.5 million in 2009. That year, the mobile penetration rate in Malta surpassed the 100 per cent mark, meaning that there were more mobile lines than living persons in the country. At the end of 2013, the number of roaming minutes reached 60 million, which means that in the space of eight years the usage more than doubled.
The latest reduction in mobile roaming tariffs entered into effect in July last year. Making calls while abroad (but in another EU country) is capped at 29c2 per minute. Receiving a call costs 8c5. Sending an SMS costs 9c7 while accessing internet costs 54c7 per megabyte.
If the roaming tariffs for internet access were applied to average broadband internet access at home, the latter would cost hundreds of euro per month, which is absolutely not the case with the current average price of €25 per month home broadband with unlimited downloads.
The MEPs last week didn’t just pave the way for the abolition of mobile roaming charges. They also voted on a very important aspect of telecommunications called ‘net neutrality They want to ban internet access providers from blocking or slowing down selected services for economic or other reasons.
MEPs underlined that internet access should be provided in accordance with the principle of ‘net neutrality’, which means that all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independently of its sender, recipient, type, content, device, service or application.
They also signalled they want clear rules to prevent internet access providers from promoting some services at the expense of others. EU telecoms regulator BEREC reported that several internet access providers were blocking or slowing down services like Skype, which is used to make phone calls over the internet.
Internet access providers would still be able to offer specialised services of higher quality, such as video on demand and business-critical data-intensive “cloud” (data storage) applications, so long as these services are not supplied to “the detriment of the availability or quality of internet access services” offered to other companies or service suppliers.
MEPs also shortened the European Commission’s list of “exceptional” cases in which internet access providers could still be entitled to block or slow down the internet. They said these practices should be permitted only to enforce a court order, preserve network security or prevent temporary network congestion. If such “traffic management measures” are used, they must be “transparent, non-discriminatory and proportionate” and “not be maintained longer than necessary”.