The European Commission will have to consider radical new measures to reduce the cost of mobile roaming rates after nearly all respondents to the consultation said that prices were unfair.
European roaming charges are currently more than three times that of domestic charges. Even Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Monday described the current expenditure as "rip offs." And the prices for roaming data is even higher. "Consumers often pay less than 5 cents to download a MB of data at home, but this can turn into Euro 2.60 MB when the consumer himself through a border invisible!" "said Kroes.
This is despite efforts by the Commission to bring down prices. Roaming caps were introduced in 2007. -The limit Travelers ' data roaming is default set at € 50 (US $ 67) excluding VAT and operators must send users a warning message when they reach 80% of that. Customers can change this limit, but it was the objective of the default to remove the so-called "bill shock" received by many customers to return from abroad.
These rules shall apply until the end of June 2012, but the Commission is due to present new plans by June of this year aimed to move closer to the goal of zero difference between domestic and roaming rates by 2015.
One idea is to break down the roaming services from other mobile telephony service, allowing customers to purchase roaming irrespective of their national mobile provider. Such a move could create an entirely new telecommunications market.
Other suggestions include legislation to mandate a phrasing between roaming charges and domestic prices. "Initial indications from our consultation suggests strong support for continuing price regulation. A significant number of respondents seem to agree that some form of regulation of retail prices should also be introduced for roaming data, "said Kroes.
A Eurobarometer survey published on Monday, revealed that 72% of European mobile phone users to limit their voice calls while abroad because they are worried about the cost, while about one in five has reduced the use of roaming services in the past four years.
Meanwhile, Ryanair Monday launched a roaming service with Maxroam. Although it claims to be "the world's first free mobile phone roaming service" customers must still pay for calls to a fixed rate of € 0.29 per minute and for sending texts to € 0.09 each. But Ryanair has also offered 1 million free minutes for incoming calls.
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