GSM Association criticises mobile roaming caps

The mobile phone trade association has criticised proposals agreed by MEPs on Wednesday to cap mobile roaming charges.

The regulations would “do more harm than good”, the GSM Association (GSMA) has said.

The proposed rules would give Britons using mobile phones in Europe cheaper calls by capping roaming charges to €0.49 (34p) a minute this summer, dropping to €0.43 (30p) by 2010.

The cost of receiving calls would also fall to €0.24 (17p) per minute this July and then be cut to €0.19 (13p) over the following two years.

Although this may sound like good news for travellers, the GSMA warned that such plans could do more harm than good.

David Pringle, spokesman for the GSMA, said: “These caps are so low that they will not allow for competition for roaming charges across each mobile provider.

“Mobile phone providers have been reducing their roaming costs since 2005, and we have seen a good rate of competition stemming from this. However, this may now stop.

“By proposing such low costs, the EU is stumping the long track record of innovation on services and tariffs and limiting operators’ scope to develop tailored packages for different customer needs,” he told Computeractive.

Mr Pringle also criticised the three-year price reduction rate agreed by MEPs, which will see the mobile caps falling from €0.49 (34p) per minute in 2007 to €0.46 (32p) in 2008 and then to €0.43 (30p) in 2009. He called the proposal “economically unstructured”.

“There is no economical analysis for these proposed figures, it is as though the EU has plucked them out of the air,” he said.

The proposed legislation will be put before the European Parliament's industry committee for approval later this month and if ratified, could be introduced in time for the July holiday rush.

If this is the case, the regulations will dictate that mobile phone providers make pricing plans and charges clearer to their customers in time for this, something described by Mr Pringle as “difficult”.

“It seems that political imperatives for summer changes have been put ahead of practicality,” he said.

“It will be extremely difficult for mobile providers to be able to contact all their customers by then, especially those on pre-pay who may not have a fixed address.”

The proposed regulations were outlined at trade show Cebit in March. However, plans to cut roaming charges have been bandied about since July 2006, with European IT commissioner Vivienne Redding leading the campaign.