INTUG

EU’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes is under intense pressure from member states that are threatening to delay or water down her proposal to abolish cross-border tariffs on mobile phone calls within Europe by 2016.

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Earlier this week CEOs of major telecoms competitors have called on European Commissioner Neelie Kroes to put an end to excessive charges for historic telephone networks, which they say amount to a subsidy for dominant firms.

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Yesterday the European Parliament (EP) adopted a clear-cut position on net neutrality, giving the priority to maintaining an open Internet for all rather than increasing its use for commercial purposes.

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Last week a comprehensive European radio policy paving the way for improvements to wireless services has been agreed upon. The agreement will foster the roll-out of high speed wireless broadband systems, vital to Europe’s digital single market.

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Today the European Commission proposed an EU wide cap on mobile data roaming fees of 90 euro cents starting July 1, 2012. The cap would fall to 70 euro cents a year later, and to 50 euro cents by July 1, 2014. Currently one megabyte of data averages EUR2.23 (USD3.22).

Nick White, Executive Vice President of INTUG said,

“The latest retail price cap proposals demonstrate acceptance by politicians and regulators that roaming charges are an unjustified imposition on consumers and a stealth tax on cross-border trade which relies increasingly on mobile data communications. However, they still do not go far enough in eliminating this particular symptom of market failure.”

Read more in the NY Times.

Yesterday the European Commission’s last price cut under the current roaming regulation came into effect. The maximum retail rate for voice roaming is now 35 cents per minute for calls made and 11 cents per minute for calls received while abroad in the EU.

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Tomorrow (25 May) new EU rules to ensure more competition on the telecom market and better services for customers will take effect. Among other things, users should be able to switch operators in one day without losing their existing number and enjoy better protection of their online personal data, according to the European Commission.

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The European Commission will outline new plans in the coming weeks to bring European roaming rates in line with national tariffs, EU sources told Reuters.

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