The European Parliament (EP) industry committee’s overwhelming support for international mobile roaming rate caps will send a “clear signal” to consumers and the telecom industry, Austrian MEP Paul Rubig said Thurs. Rubig, who authored the official report for the Industry, Research & Energy (ITRE) committee on the EC plan to regulate wholesale and retail roaming charges, said the 49-3 vote will also put lawmakers in a strong bargaining position with the Council of Ministers. ITRE, in cooperation with the internal market committee (IMCO), has taken the lead on the proposal and was the last of several EP panels to vote on it before it comes up next month in plenary. MEPs backed a compromise package of 17 amendments, winnowed down from 348 originally filed in ITRE alone, Rubig said. One key amendment sets a maximum price mobile operators can charge each other for handling roaming calls from other networks of 0.23 euro cents, twice the average transmission rate across the 27 member countries. At the retail level, the “European consumer protection tariff” would allow companies to charge no more than 40 euro cents per minute to make roaming calls, and 15 euro cents per minute to receive them, well below the numbers suggested by the EC and Council, Rubig said. Prices were set in anticipation of a likely industry legal challenge, he said. On another major issue, ITRE approved an opt-out scheme requiring operators automatically to shift customers to the EU tariff unless they opt for a lower-priced package. Wholesale rates will kick in immediately for mobile operators, one month later for consumers, Rubig said. Legislators also approved an automatic “push” SMS system to alert roaming consumers about the rates, and a freephone number where they can get information on roaming and texting prices. In addition, phones must display an icon when a user is outside his or her home country. The regulation will sunset in 3 years if the EC determines the roaming market to be competitive, Rubig said; if not, a fresh initiative will be necessary. ITRE is “at odds” with the EC over the need for clear rates for data transfers, he said; the panel wants them established now. Still, he said, the compromise, which adopted many of IMCO’s amendments as well, gives the EP a “strong negotiating mandate.” Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding said the vote showed that “loudly, the bell is now tolling for international mobile roaming charges in Europe.” All parliamentary committees charged with considering her proposal have signaled support for wholesale and retail regulation and greater price openness, she said. Mobile operators, not surprisingly, were less enthusiastic. They want any Euro tariff to be set at least 65 euro cents for making and 35 for receiving calls. In addition, they urged the EC to let operators and their customers decide on rate schemes instead of being stuck with caps.
A close vote is likely when the European Parliament (EP) industry committee takes up EC plans to regulate international mobile roaming fees, its spokeswoman said Tues. The industry, research and energy (ITRE) committee and the internal market committee (IMCO) have taken the lead in reviewing the proposal. Last month, by 3 votes, the latter adopted the official report by Austrian MEP Paul Rubig. Remaining “crucial issues” don’t hinge on whether price caps should be set at wholesale and/or retail, but whether consumers should opt in or opt out on new prices, the spokeswoman said. Under the opt-out scheme, the new “Euro tariff” automatically would apply to all consumers from day one. Under the opt-in model, they would have to request the rate from their mobile operators. Around 30 amendments are in play, covering wholesale charges, the Euro tariff, retail charges, and opt-in/opt-out. The vote is set for Thurs. morning. Operators, meanwhile, pressed the EP to weigh the “serious harm” to the industry from roaming fee caps. Many amendments on the table would intensify that damage, the GSM Assn. (GSMA) said. Proposals passed by the IMCO require operators to put some customers on regulated prices, severely distorting competition, the group said. Now ITRE will be considering amendments on setting retail price ceilings as low as 15 Euro cents for receiving calls, more than 75% below current rates, GSMA said. Caps that low would keep operators from competing with each other and force them to set rates below their costs, it said. The GSMA is “particularly concerned” that some ITRE proposals buck recommendations in a report the EP itself commissioned. The Copenhagen Economics study showed that the original EC proposals would have kept industry from recouping its costs and harmed competition, recommending significantly higher caps, GSMA said. “Industry is alarmed that the Parliament has seemingly disregarded independent expert advice in favor of political pressure,” it said. A plenary vote is expected May 1.
Convincing the European Parliament (EP) to vest telecom regulatory authority in a “federal,” pan-European body may be difficult, a spokesman for German MEP Angelika Niebler, who chairs the EP’s industry, research & energy committee, said last week. Legislators have resisted such power transfers in other cases, the European Regulators Group (ERG) told Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding in Feb. The proposal isn’t yet officially on the table, but MEPs are wary of a super-regulator, the spokesman said.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) still dominates the unbundled local loop (ULL) market in Germany, regulator BNetzA said Wed. The finding came in a draft of a biennial ULL market definition and analysis required under the EU e- communications regulatory framework. An issue of concern to DT rivals is replacement or overbuild of copper connections by glass fiber, said telecom lawyer Axel Spies, representing the German Competitive Carriers Assn. (VATM). When DT deploys its VDSL fiber network, it aims to install fiber in place of copper connections between its central offices and remote terminals. The company runs 8,000 central offices and 300,000 remote terminals in Germany, Spies said. According to BNetzA, that will give rivals access to the fiber cable between the central office and remote terminal and to the incumbents’ empty ducts and pipes to install their own cables, Spies said. BNetzA Pres. Matthias Kurth was quoted as saying, “This is a step to make alternative investments in the build-out of new glass fiber infrastructures possible at reasonable cost.” The decision is a step in the right direction, VATM said, but it warned there’s still a long way to go. Besides access to the loops and glass fiber connection joining the central office and remote terminal, “competitors demand access to the loops directly at the remote terminal and further access to hybrid loops -- fiber combined with copper -- at central offices,” Spies said: “Otherwise, infrastructure competition will not thrive and new competitive services such as triple play (telephony, TV and Internet) won’t reach the end-user.”
German telecom regulator BNetzA Fri. cut the monthly access charge to Deutsche Telekom’s (DT’s) copper loop, rejecting the incumbent’s claim that company restructuring and personnel changes will make it costlier to provide the service. DT had sought a rate hike to 12.03 ($16) from
By a close vote, an EP consumer protection panel Thurs. approved an EC plan to cap international mobile roaming charges. The “tight” vote likely signals a “lively debate” in plenary on whether consumers should have to opt in or out of capped tariffs, Internal Market & Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee Chmn. Arlene McCarthy (U.K. Socialist) said. MEPs widely back roaming charge ceilings, but differ on how to calculate rates and offer them to consumers. The good news in the vote was “huge convergence” on consumer protection, said Maltese Socialist MEP and report author Joseph Muscat. But “the good news stops” there, he said. Roaming fees approved weren’t those he favors but tracked more closely to those proposed by govts. The Culture & Education Committee voted Thurs. to endorse the Commission proposal. The European People’s Party/European Democrats (EPP/ED), the largest bloc, said the tariff -- 50 euro cents to make an international roaming call, 25 cents to receive one -- “will become the benchmark against which all other roaming offers will be compared in terms of price,” ending the “rip-off” of consumers. Parliament’s industry committee votes on its report on the proposal April 12 before the May plenary. Telecom ministers will consider the draft directive June 7.
An EC proposal to cap international mobile roaming charges is wending its way through the European Parliament (EP) this week. The Economic & Monetary Affairs committee Wed. backed the Commission’s plan to regulate wholesale and retail tariffs, though they differed on the method, its spokesman said. Other key points of the panel’s opinion include: (1) Rather than setting a total maximum retail charge at 130% of the maximum wholesale charge, cap the average retail charge at 150% of the maximum wholesale fee combined with a top price per minute of 50 eurocents for making a roaming call, 20 eurocents for receiving one. (2) Require operators to notify customers of the tariff by SMS or voice call within one hour of when the begin roaming outside their home country. (3) Make clear that the directive isn’t intended to be permanent and should be reviewed in 2 years. Lawmakers approved the opinion 21-15; opposition came mostly from the European People’s Party/European Democrats, the largest party, which wanted to limit the regulation to wholesale prices only, the spokesman said. The Internal Market & Consumer Protection, and Culture & Education committees are expected to vote today (Thurs.), followed April 12 by the Industry, Research & Energy Committee. Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding welcomed the “strong convergence of views” emerging between the EP and the Council. Two questions remain open, she said: Whether all consumers should automatically profit from the regulation -- but have the option to go with an operator offering even better rates -- or only those who expressly opt in; and where exactly the retail-level caps will be set.
Several “burning regulatory issues” remain unresolved in Europe’s increasingly competitive telecom sector, the EC said Thurs. in its 12th and final report on the state of European e-communications rules and markets before it issues proposals for reform of the regulatory framework. The main problems, Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding said at a briefing, are “inconsistencies, inconsistencies, inconsistencies.” Incumbents and new entrants said they welcome more competition but questioned some EC findings.
Mobile termination fees should come under competition law, not preemptive, or ex ante, regulation by German telecom regulator BNetzA, the Cologne Administrative Court of First Instance ruled last week. The court overruled an Aug. 2006 BNetzA decision finding that T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and E- Plus have significant market power in the termination market and imposing competition remedies. “Ex ante regulation is too severe an intrusion into the rights of mobile operators,” the court said; competition law is adequate to protect consumers and ensure a level playing field. “In this context, it is of particular significance that the termination fees in Germany are significantly below the EU average,” the court said. The ruling “surprised” BNetzA, which appealed, Pres. Matthias Kurth reportedly said. The issue of mobile termination fees “has been a bone of contention between the U.S. and Germany for years,” said telecom lawyer Axel Spies. The regulator has not proposed a cost model, and the court ruling will boost uncertainty in the sector, he said. The EC wants to cap mobile roaming fees, which some deem micromanagement. But a national court has ordered its regulator to step back from preemptive price controls. “How these 2 diverging regulatory approaches fit together remains to be seen,” Spies said. “This has nothing to do with international roaming, but with the application of the current EU [e-communications regulatory] framework by the German regulator on national mobile markets,” said a spokesman for Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding. BNetzA’s decision was correct and it was right to appeal, the spokesman said: “We will await with interest the final outcome of this case.”
The EC aims to nail down govts.’ agreement on its proposed international mobile roaming regulation at today’s (Thurs.) informal meeting of the 27 EU telecom ministers at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany, it said. With European Parliament (EP) committee votes on the proposal scheduled this and next month, and a plenary vote set for May, the EC said there’s “broad agreement” on the aims and plan to regulate wholesale and retail roaming fees among the EC, EP and Telecom Council. Current discussion centers on how the goals can be met through regulation and what price caps should be set, the EC said. Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding is pushing to have legislation in place by mid-year. In a position paper submitted to the EC, the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) noted that at the same time the EC, EP and Council are looking to regulate roaming prices, the Commission is considering deregulating mobile services, “a view ECTA believes is contradictory and premature.” High roaming prices are symptomatic of the inadequate competition in the supply of many mobile phone services, leaving operators free to exploit national fragmentation, the group said. One way to deal with the problem would be to allow alternative networks to operate as mobile virtual network operators to link Europe’s balkanized markets into a pan- European service, it said. “There is still far too much reliance on legacy services in the mobile sector,” said Ilsa Godlovitch, head of regulatory affairs. Sergio Antocicco, International Telecom Users Group chmn., said: “Businesses are unable to obtain the seamless pan-European converged fixed and mobile telecom services that are vital for improved effectiveness and productivity, and for economic growth.” E- communications providers meanwhile urged ministers to take steps to boost growth in Europe’s flagging telecom sector. Telcos back Reding’s plan to ease regulation on some retail markets and end preemptive regulation of markets as they become competitive, said the European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO). But “the vast majority” of providers worry that despite increased competition, debate on the EC review of its e-communications regulatory framework continues to focus on extending current rules or adding new remedies such as functional and structural separation of dominant telcos, to the detriment of would-be investors in new networks, ETNO Dir. Michael Bartholomew said.