By Patrick Barnard, Senior Web Editor, TMCnet
Most US citizens are unaware of the high roaming charges that Europeans frequently have to pay for mobile phone use. Often, when mobile phone users in Europe skip over a border (which sometimes isn’t very far away), they are met with high roaming charges imposed by competing operators – it’s a much different situation compared to traveling from state to state here in the US. In 2007 the European Commission set price caps for such roaming charges – despite outcry from mobile operators, who argued that market forces should be left to determine a fair price for using a mobile phone abroad. The EU made this move after it determined that mobile operators were charging prices that were many times higher than the actual cost of the service. On Tuesday, The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg upheld the Commission’s decision to impose the price limits, saying they were “justified… to protect the proper functioning of the internal market.” The price caps will remain in effect until 2012. Europe’s four most prominent mobile phone operators — Vodaphone, Telefonica O2, T-Mobile (News – Alert) and Orange — were hoping that the EU would decide not to extend the rules. They argue that the commission’s original decision violates the principle of “subsidiarity,” whereby some decisions are taken purely at national level. According to published reports, company officials at Vodafone (News – Alert) have said it’s possible that the receivers of such mobile roaming calls might have to pick up the tab. The European Court, however, rejected the carriers’ complaints, deciding that “the ceilings for retail charges must be considered to be appropriate for the purpose of protecting consumers against high levels of charges.” In other words, the court ruled in favor of protecting consumers’ rights as opposed to protecting the operators’ current business models. For more on this news, check out this report.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard
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