The Latvian presidency of the EU has secured a compromise on roaming and net neutrality regulations among EU member states. It can now start negotiations with the European Parliament, which passed a different version of the proposal last April. The parliament must approve a final version of the legislation before it can take effect.
While the parliament called for an end to roaming surcharges by the end of 2015, the member states adopted a more cautious proposal. This involves first an introduction of 'fair use' roaming, with a limited amount of traffic provided at national rates and then a small surcharge for any additional use. The cost of additional use would be lower than current rates and could not be more than the wholesale prices charged. The surcharge for making a call when roaming would be based on a weighted average of national mobile termination rates in the EU. The European Commission would consider only from mid-2018 bringing an end to the roaming surcharges.
On net neutrality, the council members ceded to industry pressure to allow different levels of service quality for specific customers. Internet providers offering this type of service level agreement would still need to ensure the overall quality of internet access for all customers. Blocking or slowing down specific content or applications will be prohibited, with only a limited number of exceptions allowed for circumstances such as traffic management and network security. National regulators would enforce the net neutrality rules, based on guidance to be developed by the EU regulatory body Berec.
Roaming and net neutrality are all that remains of the 'Connected Continent' legislation first presented in the autumn of 2013 by former Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes. New legislation on realising a digital single market in the EU is under development by the new European Commission. It expects to present its proposals in May. The new commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Gunther Oettinger, welcomed the latest news and called for a swift agreement between parliament and the council, so the EU can move forward with the digital single market work.
Members of the European Parliament have already called the delay to ending roaming charges proposed by council members "unacceptable". A letter signed by 126 MEPs prior to the 04 March council representatives meeting also noted that the EU's presidency "weakened" proposal on net neutrality goes against the parliament's call for clear definitions.
The mobile industry group GSMA warned against a too prescriptive approach on the two issues. It said that the EU needs to work further on refining the basic roaming allowance in order to avoid "unnecessary implementation costs and a lengthy set-up period". Furthermore, it noted that many operators already offer packages under which customers can use roaming at the same price as national services.
The broader industry group ETNO, as well as the GSMA, expressed disappointment that the EU did not address the issue of further spectrum harmonisation across the states. ETNO said more ambitious reforms were needed in the EU, especially to remove barriers to investment.
