Five European Operators to Cut Wholesale Data Rates
Five mobile operators across Europe have banded together and agreed to cut wholesale data rates to EUR 0.25 per megabyte. Participating are KPN (Netherlands) and its subsidiaries BASE (Belgium) and E-Plus (Germany), Polish mobile operator Play and several operators from the 3 Group (UK, Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Denmark). The agreement should reduce customer prices over the next 12 months.
With the European average retail roaming rate currently at EUR 5.24 per MB, this could lead to significant reductions in retail prices across the EU. If the five operators can convince other operators to join, a European flat-rate data tariff is possible.
Whether this would be enough to stop European Telecom Commissioner Viviane Reding from taking measures in summer 2008 coming remains to be seen. Last week, Ms. Reding has made it clear she’s going to impose price cuts if the industry doesn’t move fast enough. “If they don’t get it done, I will have to put regulation on the table,” she said, pointing to summer 2008 as her deadline to see lower prices.
Ms. Reding said that a cap on roaming SMS is also possible, so even if the operators can agree to reduce the cost of roaming data, they’ll be hard pushed to prevent more legislation from the European Commission.
In a similar move, Vodafone will reduce the price of its monthly data roaming tariff for European business travelers with EUR 15. From June 2008, the maximum charge will be EUR 60. At the same time, the amount of data a customer can use will be increased to at least 150 megabyte in most European markets. This equals EUR 0.40 per MB.
In addition, the operator is introducing a variation on its European flat-rate daily data roaming tariff to several non-EU regions. For EUR 30 per day, customers in the U.S., Asia Pacific and South Africa can use up to 50 MB, which equals EUR 0.60 per MB.
UPDATE (13 February 2008):
Telecompaper reports that T-Mobile is reducing its roaming charges for data usage in other European countries by introducing a uniform roaming charge for mobile internet use in the EU. The rate is EUR 2 per MB, considerably higher than the price its competitors will charge, and will be introduced summer 2008. The operator also offers roaming services for heavy data users who need a larger data volume, charging EUR 15 for 50 MB.
Source: The Register, Telecompaper
