EU roaming cap to stay says EU Advocate General
British Mobile operators are facing defeat in their battle against EU plans to regulate international roaming rates, after the EU’s Advocate General ruled that the price caps were valid.
Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 are challenging plans by the European Commission to regulate roaming charges on voice calls.
Luis Miguel Poiares Pessoa Maduro, the Advocate General and a key adviser to the European Court of Justice, ruled recently that the regulation is in the interests of the internal market in which ‘free movement of goods, services and capital is ensured’.
His decision is non-binding but in vast majority of cases rulings by Advocate Generals are heeded by the European Court of Justice. The final ruling will be delivered over the coming months.
Maduro said in a statement: ‘The differences in price between calls made within one’s own member state and those made while roaming could reasonably be regarded as discouraging the use of cross-border services such as roaming.’
The case was referred to the European Court of Justice in 2007 by the UK High Court.
O2′s end to ‘roaming’ may spark price war
VODAFONE, the struggling mobile operator, was dealt a fresh blow yesterday as O2, its rival, paved the way for a new price war by abandoning charges for receiving calls while abroad.In a surprise move. which pre-empted the introduction of tough new European Commission rules, the Spanish-owned group said its 16.8 million UK customers would no longer be charged for receiving calls while abroad.
Analysts feared the introduction of the new tariff, for which O2′s customers must pay £5 a month, will force rivals, including Vodafone, which is already facing fierce pricing pressures in its key European markets, into making similar cuts.
The cost for making calls abroad or roaming??? has long-provided a lucrative revenue stream for the main mobile players, accounting, analysts believe, for between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of their profits.
Though the Commission is now seeking to cut roaming charges with the introduction of price caps analysts had expected the operators to hold back on any radical moves until the proposals were made law. The plans are currently going through Parliament with the outcome of the European Union Council of Ministers’ discussions on the proposals due in mid-December.
One analyst, who declined to be named, said: This is a bold move from Telefonica, Telefonica [the owner of O2] is eroding some of the synergy that Vodafone derives from its own footprint.???
However, a spokesman for Vodafone said its customers were very happy??? with its existing Passport scheme, a special tariff to provide low-cost calls while abroad.
Source- http://business.timesonline.co.uk
