The European Commission today presented a wide-ranging plan which would significantly change the business of providing roaming services to customers. Under the terms proposed, customers would be able to sign-up for a cheaper roaming tariff, separate from their national service contract, while using the same number. Operators and MVNOs would also be given the right to use other operators’ networks in the EU at regulated wholesale prices, to encourage more operators to compete in the roaming market. These changes would be introduced from 1 July 2014: to cover the period until then, the proposal would “progressively lower current retail price caps on voice and texting (SMS) services and introduce a new retail price cap for mobile data services.”

In a statement, Neelie Kroes, EC VP for Digital Agenda (pictured), said: “This proposal tackles the root cause of the problem – the lack of competition on roaming markets – by giving customers more choice and by giving alternative operators easier access to the roaming market. It would also immediately bring down prices for data roaming, where operators currently enjoy outrageous profit margins.”  Representing the interests of operators, the GSMA said that: “We share the Commission’s belief that competition, not price caps, must be the right long term solution. The proposed structural measures will need assessing in detail.  Implementing solutions based on them would need to be efficient in terms of costs; limited to the roaming market, proportionate in terms of impact; and easy to use for customers. It would be counter-productive to combine stringent price caps with structural measures to foster competition in this market.”