The European Parliament may vote in April on much steeper cuts in roaming prices than those proposed by the European Commission. The Industry, Research and Energy committee approved the proposal to bring the maximum retail price for a roaming call in the EU down to EUR 0.15 per minute by mid-2014, versus the current price of EUR 0.35 per minute and the EC proposal for EUR 0.24 per minute in 2014. The price of an incoming call would fall in three steps, from EUR 0.11 per minute now to EUR 0.05 in July 2014, and wholesale voice prices would decline to EUR 0.05 per minute, from EUR 0.18 currently. The committee also approved a drop in SMS prices, to EUR 0.05 retail and EUR 0.01 wholesale in mid-2014, versus the EC proposal of respectively EUR 0.10 and EUR 0.02 per message. Data prices would also be subject to retail price caps under the proposed regulations, starting at EUR 0.50 per MB in July 2012 and dropping to EUR 0.20 in mid-2014. Wholesale data would drop from the current EUR 0.50 per MB to EUR 0.05 by 2014. The EC also proposed caps on retail data prices, but at a higher level of EUR 0.90 per MB from this summer, falling to EUR 0.50 by mid-2014. The committee backed the EC proposal to allow consumers to choose their own roaming services provider when abroad. If approved, operators would have to offer retail roaming services separately from 1 March 2014, and inform customers of their right to change roaming supplier, for both voice and data services, when abroad. They would also be required to offer a wholesale roaming service to help alternative providers develop offers. It will now be up to the European Commission to decide whether to negotiate a compromise proposal before the full parliament votes in April.
