European Mobile Roaming Charges To Fall.

[tayto]

I know not Thailand related but I think it will be of interest to the many European short time visitors to Thailand who use mobile phones across europe

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World

Mobile roaming costs expected to fall

Wednesday, 23 May 2007 10:37

The European Parliament in Strasbourg is expected to approve a deal on mobile phone charges today.

The agreement will cap roaming charges meaning cheaper calls for users travelling in the EU.

If the deal is agreed, mobile phone bills could fall by as much as 75%.

AdvertisementMembers of the European Parliament are expected to approve the reduction in roaming charges today.

It is thought that new laws will be rushed into place so that holidaymakers can benefit this summer.

The agreement will also reduce rates even further over the next three years.

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Story from RTÉ News:

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[bangkokrick]

By Ingrid Melander Reuters - 1 hour 19 minutes agoSTRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers backed a plan on Wednesday to slash the cost of using mobile phones abroad in the 27-member bloc, part of a drive to win back support for the EU by addressing voters' concerns.

The EU's executive Commission says the move will cut prices to a quarter or a fifth of what citizens now pay for making and receiving calls in other member states.

"It's a great day for consumers, whether they are tourists or business travellers ... their telephone bills will melt away," EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding told EU lawmakers debating mandatory caps on roaming charges.

"The regulation will protect the vast majority of ordinary customers who up to now have been heavily overcharged when travelling abroad," she said.

The lawmakers approved the measure on a show of hands by an overwhelming majority.

Joachim Wuermeling, speaking for the German presidency of the EU, told lawmakers he hoped member states would give the final green light on June 29.

That would give operators until the end of July to offer price caps and until the end of August to enforce them.

The legislation is part of a push by the EU to show it can bring real benefits to its 490 million citizens, many of whom complain Brussels is too remote from their daily lives.

Reding warned that the EU could also regulate the price of mobile phone data -- such as text and audiovisual messages (SMS and MMS) -- if prices did not fall, stressing that national regulators would watch prices closely in the next 18 months.

"The operators should know this, see this warning signal very carefully and bring the prices down to normal by themselves in order to avoid further regulation," she said.

TIMING

In the first year, the EU-wide maximum roaming tariff will be 49 euro cents (33 pence) a minute for making calls abroad and 24 cents for receiving them. It will fall to 46 and 22 cents in the second year and 43 and 19 cents in the third, respectively.

The caps would then lapse unless reaffirmed by EU states and the bloc's assembly.

The timing of the measure means many of the EU's 150 million mobile phone users will miss out on the benefit if they take their summer holidays in July.

The price cap will only become automatic for all customers two months after the offer is made.

Users already benefiting from specific roaming tariffs or packages will not be switched automatically.

Big operators argued the deal would curb competition in roaming, a sector worth 8.5 billion euros in 2005, but their competitors said they could live with the price caps.

Reding and many lawmakers rejected the criticism. "We do not fix prices, we fix ceilings under which competition will have ample room to propose attractive price packages," Reding said.

Many operators have already cut roaming fees ahead of the new rules.

The price limits will apply only to cross-border calls made or received in any of the 27 EU states, not in other countries.

EU lawmakers backed a requirement for operators to inform users on the price of roaming.

"Just as when you go into a restaurant the price is on the menu, so when you cross a border your mobile phone should show you the price of a phone call," said Paul Ruebig, the conservative lawmaker who led the assembly's tough negotiations with EU states on the caps.

British lawmaker Nigel Farage of the Eurosceptical UK Independence Party was one of few to disagree, criticising what he called "a giant publicity stunt" for the ill-loved EU.

(Additional reporting by Darren Ennis and Paul Taylor