Meerderheid telecomaanbieders biedt nieuwe euro-tarieven aan (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Most European mobile phone operators have followed new EU rules to cut their prices for customers using their mobile phone abroad, according to a `name and shame' list published by the European Commission on Thursday (2 August).

But some telecom operators have yet to inform Brussels of steps taken to comply with the new rules while others have failed to abide by the deadline for the recently imposed price ceiling for cross-border mobile phone calls within the 27-member Union.

"Today, just one month after the new EU rules on mobile roaming charges came into force, around 50% of consumers in Europe are already profiting from substantially reduced tariffs," said EU telecom commissioner Viviane Reding i, responsible for the new regulation.

"I welcome in particular that many operators offered the new Eurotariff as the holiday season began, and that some even went substantially below the regulation's price ceilings," she said in a statement on Thursday (2 August).

The EU in June set a €0.49 limit on the fees operators may charge persons for calls made abroad in the bloc, and a €0.24 per minute fee limit for charges for receiving the roaming calls - both before value-added tax.

Mobile phone operators had until Monday (30 July) to ask their customers if they wanted to switch to the new Euro-tariff. If they received no reply, the companies have until the end of August to automatically switch their customers to the new tariff.

The Commission said 21 out of the 95 telecoms operators had failed to respond when quizzed about their compliance with the rules.

"We hope that they have nothing to hide," Ms Reding's spokesman Martin Selmayr, told journalists in Brussels, adding that the `name and shame' list would put pressure on the companies who yet had to respond.

Out of the remaining 74, most have charged the maximum fee allowed or just below it, while only one - Cytamobile in Cyprus - was found to be very late in offering the new rates to clients.

National telecoms watchdogs in the EU's 27 member states have powers to fine companies that fail to meet the new rules.

The regulation is part of several consumer-friendly policies by Brussels in a bid to bring the EU closer to its citizens - particularly after France and the Netherlands in 2005 voted 'no' to the proposed EU constitution.