The European Commission has proposed extending the EU's roaming regulation for ten years when the current version expires in mid-2022. This means EU residents can continue to profit from 'roam like at home' and pay no surcharges when using their mobile phones in other EU countries.
Since the roaming charges were lifted in June 2017, use of mobile phones abroad has increased exponentially. Data roaming traffic alone rose 17-fold in the first two years.
Extension of the RLAH rules must still be discussed with the European Parliament and Council before the new regulation can take effect. The Commission already held a market consultation on the proposal last year.
Better quality roaming
The proposed new regulation would extend the basic principle of roam like at home, while also working on improving the quality of roaming services. For example, under the new proposal, operators would be required to provide customers with equivalent speeds when abroad, and could not for example reduce to 3G levels a customer that normally receives 4G speeds at home. This assumes that the same or better network quality is available in the visited country.
Access to emergency services, including caller location services, should also be available wherever people are roaming in the EU, according to the new regulation. In addition, travellers should be informed about the means of reaching emergency services, including those designed for disabled people, in the EU country they are visiting.
Operators would also face new obligations to inform customers when they are calling premium numbers, which are not covered by the RLAH rules. They should still have access to these services, which often cover important service lines at for example airlines or insurance companies, but must be informed they will incur additional charges in order to help avoid 'bill shock' when roaming.
The Commission published the results of a survey by Eurostat at the end of 2020 on some of the above issues. It found it around a third people said they experienced lower speeds when roaming and around one in ten were blocked from accessing premium-rate services. A relatively high number also continued to switch off data services when roaming (34%), buy a special roaming bundle or acquire Sim in their destination country (10%).
Lower wholesale prices
Finally, the new regulation continues the gradual reduction in price caps on wholesale roaming rates beyond 2022, in order to ensure the service remains sustainable for all mobile providers. This is particularly a concern for MVNOs, which face only costs and no revenues from roaming.
The wholesale rates would fall in two steps, from 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2025. The data rate would drop from the current EUR 2.5 per GB to EUR 2.0 and then EUR 1.5, and the call rate would nearly halve over the same period, from EUR 0.032 to EUR 0.019 per minute.
Industry group MVNO Europe said it supports the proposal to lower the caps further, but would like to see a bigger drop in the prices, as the Commission's proposal is "clearly disconnected from market reality". Current wholesale roaming agreements remain largely at or near the regulated price caps, which has proven unsustainable for the virtual operators, the group said. It called for the data cap to drop to 25 cents per GB from 2024, with a further market review thereafter.
