EU tells mobile phone firms to cut roaming fees

Mobile phone companies who charge customers high fees for calls outside a home country could face a clampdown unless they cut fees within six months, the European Union's top telecom regulator said on October 04.
Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said so-called roaming charges were too high and must come down.
"There are signs that competition is developing but it's still not satisfactory," she told a news conference.
For a peak-time four-minute call prices range from 0.2 euros for a Finnish customer roaming in Sweden, to 12.7 euros ($15.14) for a Maltese customer roaming in Latvia.
The Brussels executive launched a Web site (http://europa.eu.int/information_society/roaming) on Tuesday, giving details of roaming tariffs that mobile operators in the 25-nation European Union charge consumers.
Roaming charges have become a bane of holidaymakers and other travellers and Reding hopes customers will use the Web site to compare prices and find a better deal. "This will help the market develop without the need of further regulation at EU level," Reding said.
"But if self-regulation does not work then we will have to take some measures. We will have a look at this after six months," Reding added.
Some operators, particularly in Greece, were not publishing fees on the Internet despite an agreement led by industry association GSM Europe to do so, Reding said. GSM Europe director, Eirini Zafeiratou, said the Web site was a welcome addition for consumers but the tariffs it listed did not take into account discounts and tariff schemes.
"It's very one-sided to say all roaming prices are high," Zafeiratou said, noting that Reding acknowledged prices were coming down.
Reding said the executive was not looking to fix prices and that a roaming charge of three to four euros was probably a fair price.
Jorgen Abild Andersen, head of the Danish telecom regulator and Chairman of the European Regulators Group, said national watchdogs were also studying roaming charges.
"The charges are very high, without justification," Andersen told the news conference, adding that cuts in wholesale charges for operators have not been passed on to customers. "There is a lot of merit for regulators to do something," Andersen told the news conference.
The watchdogs decide in November what further steps to take, but Reding hopes that operators will be more forthcoming by then.