EU may end all roaming charges

[NFH]

Interesting. I can understand the UK (Vodafone), France (France Télécom), Germany (Deutsche Telekom) and Spain (Telefónica) objecting, given that they are the home country of most EU multinational mobile networks, but Italy is surprising. On the other hand, it is hardly surprising that no small countries object because the status quo affects them disproportionately.

[tux]

Originally Posted by Effendi

Italian Governmen isn't against it, but Italian operators are, of course!

I think almost every carrier in the EU is against Neelie But in my last post I was referring to this:

Originally Posted by inquisitor

France and Italy have even fully rejected Neelie Kroes' plans which are also unlikey to find sufficient support by the Council of the European Union.

[inquisitor]

The opposition from Italy, France and Spain may also be linked to these countries' assymetric roaming volumes (more inbound than outbound roaming) and the absolute high number of inbound roamers which probably generate significant revenues for the local MNOs:

With more than 46.1 million tourists a year, Italy is the fifth highest tourist earner, and fifth most visited country in the world, behind France (79.5 million), United States (62.3 million), China (57.6) and Spain (56.7 million).

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Italy

[NFH]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

The opposition from Italy, France and Spain may also be linked to these countries' assymetric roaming volumes (more inbound than outbound roaming) and the absolute high number of inbound roamers which probably generate significant revenues for the local MNOs

I imagine that the networks which stand to lose the most profit from the European Commission's proposals are the home networks, not the visited networks. The visited networks mostly charge a reasonable wholesale price to the home networks (evident from some of the competitive roaming bundles that home networks offer), but it is the home networks who mark up these wholesale prices to unreasonable retail levels, particularly for out-of-bundle prices.

[inquisitor]

WIK Consult, a German telecoms advisory firm, has studied the Trans-Tasman roaming market for the Australian Government which resulted in the following report published in May 2012:
http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-indus...IK%20Study.pdf
Quite an interesting read as it explains many commercial and technical basics of cellular roaming by also making references to the experiences of European roaming regulation.

Further reports issued by the Australian Government:
http://ris.finance.gov.au/files/2013/02/03-TTMR-RIS.pdf
http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-indus...t%20Report.pdf

[tux]

http://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/...ti-i-costi.htm

After all, Italy isn't against Kroes' proposal...

[Effendi]

Italian Governmen isn't against it, but Italian operators are, of course!

[andy]

Decision taken by MEPs, and roaming fees will be abolished by 2016 (December 15th 2015)

Also they will protect what is referred to a net neutrality, there can be no systems of charging some people extra for preferential access to the internet, or blocking data access to competing products such as VoIP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26866966

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meps-vote-s...y-2015-1443237

[NFH]

Originally Posted by andy

Also they will protect what is referred to a net neutrality, there can be no systems of charging some people extra for preferential access to the internet, or blocking data access to competing products such as VoIP

I'm going a bit off-topic, but I stayed in a hotel last week where the hotel's internet provider had blocked SIP and all non-standard ports. When I told the hotel, they quickly got me another login where all ports were open. I wonder whether the regulations will apply to hotels as well?

[NFH]

I found the draft legislation, Article 37 of this draft regulation (see pages 61 to 66), which comprises many amendments to the well known Regulation (EU) No 531/2012. The most notable points I've spotted are:

• Home networks will have to apply to all their respective retail packages the applicable domestic service rate to both domestic services and regulated roaming services throughout the EEA as if the regulated roaming services were consumed on the home network and ensure that this is complied with when roaming on at least one network in each EEA country. For example O2 UK will apply this in Spain only when roaming on Movistar, because it is also owned by Telefonica. The principle of "virtual extension of the home network coverage" is mentioned.
• Networks can apply fair usage policies to roaming at domestic prices. Three UK already does this for example.
• Home networks don't have to agree bilateral agreements for roaming at domestic prices in all EEA countries, but in only 17 member states representing 70% of the population of the EEA. This is probably means that roaming charges in some small parts of the EU like Gibraltar will not improve.
• Incoming calls will be free from 1st July 2014.

I might have missed some significant points, so I hope others will add more observations below.