The European Commission said it plans to introduce further regulation on roaming in June, to prepare for the planned end to roaming surcharges in mid-2017. It has just completed a public consultation on wholesale roaming rates that was designed to help it decide on whether further market regulation is needed and how to set the fair-use policy for operators.
The roaming regulation passed by Parliament last October will see roaming surcharges capped from 30 April 2016 and an end to all roaming charges from 17 June 2015. From that point, all roaming in the EU will cost the same as customers pay for domestic services. The EC has been charged with setting the details of the fair-use policy included in the regulation. This would allow operators to set a fair use amount of roaming in the EU, in order to avoid any abuse of the system, such as 'permanent roaming', where customers use in their home country Sims from other countries where national rates are cheaper.
If a customer exceeds the fair-use amount, operators would be able to add extra charges for roaming. Consumers responding the consultation called for the most generous fair use possible, while operators want it limited to what occasional travellers could be expected to use.
The EC consultation also looked at the problem of wholesale roaming rates, which are out of balance across the EU and could distort the market when full 'roam like home' starts. Not surprisingly, the big operators responding to the consultation generally think that the wholesale roaming markets are competitive, while the smaller operators and MVNOs think that the wholesale roaming market is overpriced. The larger operators expect an increase in competition on the wholesale market as 'roam like home' is implemented from this May, but the smaller operators say the opposite.
Based on the outcome of the consultation and further input from parties such as Berec, the Commission will present its legislative proposals by June and aims to adopt the implementing acts on fair use by December. The recently started consultation reviewing regulation of termination rates will also feed into the decisions on roaming.
