Mobile Phone Reviews
 
 
Mobile phone roaming fees slashed

Fri, 02 Jun 2006

Some of Europe's biggest mobile phone operators, including the UK's Orange and Germany's T-Mobile, have agreed to slash mobile phone roaming charges.

Orange, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Wind which have around 200 million European mobile customers combined have agreed to cap the average wholesale rates they offer each other for providing roaming services at 0.45 euros (31 pence) a minute from October and 0.36 euros a minute from October 2007.

Roaming services allow customers to make and receive calls while travelling in the EEA, which comprises the 25 members of the EU plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

The move comes, as the European Commission, which polices competition in the EU, is preparing new rules for the wholesale and retail sectors aimed at bringing prices down in the telecommunications industry.

The EU telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding has signalled she will proceed with proposed legislation to scrap roaming charges affecting the EU's 380 million mobile-phone owners.

Mobile-phone companies generate billions of pounds in revenues from EU roaming fees. Credit Suisse, the investment bank, calculated in March that the EU’s legislation could cut a European mobile operator's revenues by three per cent and their earnings by six per cent.

Jim Hyde, managing director of T-Mobile's UK business, has already admitted roaming fees were "too high", and predicted more mobile-phone operators would follow its lead.

But mobile phone bosses believe the market, and not regulation, is the best way to meet customers’ needs. "We have always expressed an interest in reducing roaming costs," T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer, Rene Obermann said in a statement.

"This makes it apparent that market forces in the mobile industry function and do not need regulatory intervention," he added.
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