The 27 European telecommunication ministers held a meeting today at the CeBit in Hanover, Germany. They informally agreed on mandatory caps on mobile phone roaming charges within Europe.
Last year, European Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding started the discussion roaming charges being too dear within Europe. But he following volunteer price reductions by some of the mobile operators are not enough in the eyes of the EU telecommunication ministers.
Especially people living near an inner European border know the phenomenon of "mobile rip-offs": Sometimes their mobile phone connects to a foreign mobile network operator – and then they get charged a roaming extra fee for outgoing calls – resulting in costs of 1 Euro per minute or sometimes more. The users are also charged for incoming calls – normally not charged at all in Europe. But also tourists and traveling businessmen will profit from the reduced roaming charges.
The informal agreement of the EU ministers should lead to a formal agreement this summer: The roaming charges for incoming calls will be capped at a maximum of 44 Euro-Cents, incoming calls at a max. of 15 Euro-Cents.
The leading European mobile operators warned the EU ministers on capping mobile phone roaming charges. T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan called the plans of the EU ministers pure populism.
The regulation of the mobile data charges is still in discussion. At the CeBit 2007 the German mobile network operators go on the offensive and reduce their data charges dramatically.
