EU split on ending roaming charges

Mobile phone roaming charges were due to end this year but that is now unlikely because EU member states say more time is needed.

They also favour watering down net neutrality to allow companies to provide different levels of service depending on what a customer pays.

Several members of the European Parliament are furious with the member states’ position.

Independent MEP Marian Harkin said they were trying to water down promises made to consumers. “This represents an attempt to prioritise the needs of telecom companies rather than the EU’s mobile phone users. We promised EU citizens we would eliminate roaming charges by 2015 — we need to keep that promise,” she said.

Under the proposal from the member states, a user would get about five texts and five minutes of phone calls abroad at the same rate as they pay at home, but would have to pay extra for anything more.

The extra would be a quarter of what it is now and the aim would be to eliminate this over time — although the member states did not decide on a date for ending roaming altogether.

A source said that if the roaming fee was to be ended immediately, normal charges in some countries would increase due to different operators in different countries that buy and sell their services on the wholesale market.

In the Baltic states, Finland, and Sweden, the domestic price is slightly lower than the wholesale price, so ending roaming would push up local calls. The situation in Ireland and some other countries is the reverse.

“There needs to be a review of the wholesale market before we can finalise this issue,” said the source.

Negotiations will now begin with the European Parliament over the issue and are expected to continue until June. It could lead to a compromise whereby they agree to phase out roaming by a certain date and increase the amount of calls and data without an extra charge, for example.

The second vexed issue is on net neutrality (the idea that all data on the internet be treated equally, with no extra or differing charges for users, content, or websites).

The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Ireland, and other member states are adamant that they want net neutrality to be the law. However, others disagree and the matter has been stuck in the mud for nearly a year.

To break the impasse, member states agreed to adopt a position that would allow companies to sell services of varying quality — faster internet speeds and quicker receipt of emails, for example — although several countries, especially the Netherlands, has net neutrality written into its law.

MEPs are split on the issue, but the liberal group, ALDE, to which Ms Harkin belongs, is adamant that net neutrality must be the rule. A spokesperson, Marietje Schaake, said: “They could lead to commercial practices that go against consumer interests, against innovative start-ups, and against fair competition in the digital economy.”

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