Six leading mobile phone operators in Europe have agreed to halve the price of average wholesale roaming tariffs in a move which follows pressure from the European Commission to cut rates or face legislation. The decision is expected to result in a big fall in the prices consumers pay for making and receiving calls when travelling in the European Economic Area.
The six companies are T- Mobile, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Wind, which together have customers representing almost 200 million EU mobile users. Vodafone has not taken part.
The six have agreed to cap the average wholesale rates they offer each other for providing roaming services at 45 Euro cents per minute from October 2006 and 36 Euro cents per minute from October 2007. This lowers current wholesale rates by around half.
In a press release T-Mobile said “The operators commit to pass the benefits of these wholesale reductions on to customers through market-driven reductions in retail prices as fully and quickly as possible. This would pave the way for a reduction in average retail roaming tariffs in the EEA by around 50 percent.”
The group will also appoint an independent body to monitor retail prices and publish an index showing trends in retail prices at an EEA-wide level.
The EEA comprises all 25 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
T-Mobile said that a main advantage of this scheme, compared to the one proposed by the European Commission, is that it provides scope for competition on prices and services between mobile operators at both the wholesale and the retail level.
The group of operators have extended an invitation to all operators in the European Economic Area to sign the proposed code of conduct, and additional operators are expected to join prior to October 2006.
“We have always expressed an interest in reducing roaming costs and have done so for the benefit of our customers,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer T-Mobile International.
“We are therefore glad to be part of a comprehensive network operator initiative, which has declared to voluntarily reduce prices significantly. This makes it apparent that market forces in the mobile industry function and do not need regulatory intervention.”
