www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The European Commission, EU, will make an investment of nearly EUR 18 million in research to boost LTE – 4G mobile networks. The funding will be used for research on the enhanced version of LTE, LTE Advanced. In countries like Finland, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK LTE trials are going on. The commercial launch of services will be made in Sweden and Norway in H1′10. In September 2009, the EC will roll out negotiations on the details with project consortia, including the flagship Artist4G that builds on the achievements of the Winner projects and unites 4G industry and researchers from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The new projects are scheduled for launch in January 2010.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: France has settled on a price that it will charge for a fourth 3G mobile licence, but France Telecom, the leading mobile operator of the country, remains unhappy.
According to a government statement, France will charge 240 million euros ($338.7 million) for the fourth licence for 3G mobile phone services.
Though, France Telecom, said it will challenge government’s decision with EU as for it feels the price being charged is too low.
“Based on this price, we will launch a challenge with the commission in Brussels,” said a France Telecom spokeswoman.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Gibraltar’s leading telecommunications provider Gibtelecom announced today that its current EU mobile roaming rates are lower than the new reduced Eurotariffs set by the European Commission with effect from 1 July 2009.
The European Commission has capped the price for making or receiving phone calls whilst travelling within the European Union on 1 July 2009. The charge for outgoing calls has been reduced from €0.46 to €0.43 per minute (excluding VAT) and the price for receiving a call has been reduced from €0.22 to €0.19 per minute (excluding VAT). At current rates of exchange, these equate to 38p and 17p respectively.
Gibtelecom’s charges for phone calls whilst travelling within the European Union have been 29p per minute for outgoing calls and 16p per minute for incoming calls since 2007, and apply to both post-paid (contract) and pre-paid (reload) customers.
Gibtelecom has also reduced the charge for sending an SMS whilst roaming within the EU to only 9p per SMS with effect 1 July 2009. To date, these charges were dependent on the Inter Operator Tariffs set by the distant network being accessed, but these are now also regulated by the EU.
In addition, the European Commission will also be controlling Inter Operator Tariffs for mobile data access when roaming. This means that Gibtelecom customers should also see a reduction in 3G / GPRS roaming charges, levied by the operators that customers are roaming with whilst travelling within Europe.
Commenting on the newly introduced EU roaming rates Gibtelecom’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Adrian Ochello said “Gibtelecom continues to be compliant with the new roaming rates and is committed to keeping roaming rates competitive to make roaming attractive, easier and affordable for customers”.
For more information, please visit http://www.gibtele.com/
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Germany has launched a MMS roaming promotion for its subscribers. The operator offers lower tariffs for sending MMS within the EU, Switzerland and Norway from 20 June until 21 September. The price has dropped to EUR 0.39 from EUR 0.99 and will return to the normal level from 22 September.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: German MVNE Vistream’s partners will decrease their roaming fees to EU levels, which means calling from EU countries will be charged EUR 0.51 per minute, while receiving calls in the EU will cost EUR 0.22 per minute. Sending SMSs within EU will be charged EUR 0.13 per message.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Vodafone Romania and Cosmote Romania will slash their roaming tariffs for the voice, SMS and data transfer services for the subscribers roaming in EU member nations starting from July 16 and July 1 respectively.
The subscribers of Vodafone travelling in EU member nations, in the EEA (European Economic Space), as well as in Switzerland will enjoy tariffs of EUR 0.512 with VAT per minute for a call to any destination from the EU, EEA and Switzerland and a EUR 0.226 with VAT per minute for any call from the EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The tariffs of SMS will be set at EUR 0.131 without VAT per SMS (0.131 euros with VAT) for the SMS sent in roaming in the EU, EEA and Switzerland to any destination and of EUR 0.35 per SMS for users of the Vodafone SIM card.
On the other hand, Cosmote Romania will reduce the roaming tariffs from 1 July on certain categories of calls, SMS and data transfer by up to 40% (for voice), 63% (for SMS) and 75%.
For further insight on Best Practices/Case Studies on Roaming Tariffs please contact christina@wirelessfederation.com
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Ministers of European Union’s 27 states will reportedly adopt the new EU roaming regulations from 1 July. These regulations were proposed by European Commission and approved by European Parliament. The roaming regulation from 1 July will cause a reduction of 60% on the bills of subscribers roaming in EU. The price of making a mobile call while travelling in the EU will go down to EUR 0.43 per minute from EUR 0.46, while receiving a call drops to EUR 0.19 from 0.22. On 1 July 2010, the prices will again be slashed to EUR 0.39 and EUR 0.15 respectively, and from 1 July 2011, subscribers will pay EUR 0.35 and EUR 0.11 per minute.
From 1 July the subscribers will pay a maximum of EUR 0.11 (excluding VAT) for sending a SMS while roaming, while mobile carriers will also be required to bill subscribers for roaming calls by the second after the first 30 seconds, instead of on a per-minute basis.
On the other hand, the roaming prices will be capped with EUR 1/MB download, with the wholesale price cap falling to EUR 0.80 in 2010 and to EUR 0.50 in 2011.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: O2 Germany’s discount brand Fonic subscribers will be charged lower roaming fees for calls made within the EU from 1 July. The subscribers can make call within the EU for EUR 0.51 per minute, while receiving calls while abroad within the EU will cost EUR 0.22. The texts will be charged EUR 0.13 with in EU.