What is roaming?
Whenever you make or receive a mobile phone call when abroad, on holiday or on business, you are roaming. You are roaming on a mobile network of a foreign network operator because your home provider normally does not provide a service in the country in which you are travelling. For providing this service, the foreign network operator will charge your home operator. This charge is passed on to you at a different rate.
How high are prices?
Still far too high, in the European Commission's view. Using your mobile phone abroad is on average four times higher than national mobile calls, differences that cannot be explained by the costs for operators. For example, an Austrian in Malta could pay €10.00 to call home for four minutes. A Spanish customer roaming in Latvia can pay up to €6.31 and a Cypriot roaming in Belgium can pay €12.00 for the same call home. An Irish customer roaming in Malta could pay as much as €11.96 for a four-minute call home.
Why did the EU intervene?
"For too long consumer complaints that roaming charges were punishing those who cross a border went unanswered," says EU Telecom Commissioner Viviane Reding. "National regulators felt powerless as roaming, because of its cross-border nature, went beyond their jurisdiction. My repeated call to operators to lower roaming charges voluntarily was not taken seriously. EU leaders at their Brussels summit in March 2006, with the strong support of the European Parliament, had underlined the importance of lowering roaming charges for Europe's competitiveness. That's why we listened and acted."
Why have operators not brought prices down voluntarily?
Although a few market players have begun to reduce prices this has only been under the threat of regulation from Commissioner Reding. There is no guarantee that without this threat, prices would have fallen. In addition, not all consumers stand to gain by existing offers. Many current schemes require users to actively subscribe to them and on top of this they have to pay for the privilege. Such packages also tend to target certain groups only while general consumers remain unaware. That is why the EU Regulation will be fairer for all, and in particular also allow smaller operators to compete.
What do EU citizens think?
In September 2006 a Eurobarometer survey canvassed 24,565 citizens from all across the EU after their summer holidays on how they felt about roaming. The main findings, representative of the EU population as a whole, include:
• 79% of EU citizens surveyed have a mobile phone.
• 44% of mobile phone owners travelled to another EU country in the past year.
• 70% support EU action to lower charges.
• Many mobile phone users use their phones less when abroad as compared to when at home - for 81% this is because of the higher roaming charges.
• 15% switch off their mobile when abroad or simply do not take it with them.
• 59% would use their mobile phone more when abroad, if prices were lower.
• 43% are still confused about the prices for calls whilst abroad.
