Europese Commissie eist dat Telecom-aanbieders lagere kosten rekenen voor internationaal bellen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has reaffirmed its plans to cut roaming fees on mobile phone calls made abroad, referring to a new survey that says that more than two thirds of EU citizens want Brussels to make the move.

"Excessively high prices restrict mobile usage while abroad," said EU media commissioner Viviane Reding i on Tuesday (7 November).

"It is not acceptable that the burden of international mobile roaming continues to be shouldered by ordinary citizens," she said and called on Europe's mobile operators to lower their roaming prices.

European mobile phone users continue to pay between €4 and €6 for a four minute roaming call abroad, which is four times higher than for national mobile calls.

But mobile operators say lower prices will squeeze the life out of competition on the European market.

"The rigid roaming regulation proposed by the European Commission would stifle operators' efforts to tailor new tariff packages to meet the needs of different customer groups and mobile users could be left worse off," said Tom Phillips from the world-wide GSM Association in a statement.

But Ms Reding argues there are plenty of business opportunities in lowering roaming prices.

"Citizens say they use their mobile phone less because prices are too high and they would use their mobile phone more if prices were lower - [then] you can well imagine what room for manoeuvre for interesting business models there are," she said referring to the survey.

"Investments of the operators into lobbying the [European] Parliament is much higher than investments of the operators into developing new business models," she noted.

EU action wanted

The commission's Eurobarometer survey showed that 79 percent of Europeans own a mobile phone and that 70 percent of these agree that the "EU should make sure that prices for making and receiving calls on mobile phones when travelling in other EU countries are not a lot higher that those at home".

A total of 24,565 people from the 25 member states responded to the Eurobarometer survey, which was carried out in September.

The commission in July put forward a proposal suggesting a cap on so-called wholesale charges - the fees which phone networks pay one another for processing roaming calls, despite some mobile operators already having lowered prices in an effort to appease the commission.

"The market had its chance. It did not deliver," Ms Reding said in July.

The proposal still has to undergo two readings in the parliament and get the approval of the - by next year - 27 member states. The first reading is expected in Spring 2007.