Commission warns on roaming charges

THE European Commission issued a new warning to mobile phone operators to open up competition and cut charges to customers for using their phones abroad.

Compulsory maximum “roaming” rates were first imposed on mobile network operators two years ago to tackle what the Commission called the “roaming rip-off”.

It was one of the most popular consumer-driven moves by the EU — an average 60% cut in the maximum charges operators could levy on mobile users making or receiving calls while in another EU country.

Maximum rates have been cut again since then, making mobile roaming charges 73% cheaper on average than they were five years ago when the Commission first began pressing operators to cut their rates voluntarily.

But despite the cuts, EU Commissioner for Europe’s “digital agenda” Neelie Kroes says the price gap between domestic mobile charges and roaming rates remains unjustifiably high, and her aim is to reduce the gap to nothing by 2015.