Europe’s roaming holiday

The Commission gives up attempt to impose time limits on free roaming.

The EU won’t impose time limits on free mobile phone roaming, the Commission said Wednesday, eliminating the caps it proposed earlier this month in a concession to consumers.

Starting in mid-2017, European travelers will be able to call home and watch livestream soccer matches and movies without extra fees, according to an 18-page Commission document. There will be safeguards to protect telecom firms from abusive customers and excessive cost burdens.

When a previous version of the roaming proposal was issued earlier this month, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker quickly retracted it after an outcry from consumers. Killing roaming charges was one of the early promises of his presidency. 

The new version is all but guaranteed to win back their support.

“End of roaming, done! The EU kept its promises,” tweeted former commissioner Viviane Reding, an MEP for the European People’s Party from Luxembourg.

When telecoms companies see calling patterns that raise red flags, they can ask regulators to approve extra fees, while customers will be able to dispute charges they think are unjustified.

“Say you’re in Dublin, you telephone to London with a Latvian SIM card, thus paying only 15 percent of the price you should have paid, we want to address those potential abuses,” said Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger.

People who live in one country but work in another won’t be subject to roaming restrictions.

“For those people it’s not abuse,” Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip said.

Before roaming charges can be abolished for consumers, however, governments and MEPs must agree on how companies charge each other when customers travel across networks. Those negotiations over wholesale roaming fees must be wrapped up before June 2017 so that consumers can reap the benefits.

“We will be thoroughly analyzing today’s proposal and provide feedback accordingly,” said Alessandro Gropelli, a spokesman for ETNO, which represents companies like Orange, Telefónica and BT.

The earlier plan would have imposed free roaming limits of 30 days at a time and 90 days within a year. Juncker withdrew it four days after its beleaguered unveiling.

Asked about the hasty withdrawal, Digital Vice President Andrus Ansip told reporters that “it was just one attempt. … It was just a draft. … It was one idea.”

And the latest version may not be the final one, as industry may be less receptive to it than consumers.

“Maybe we have to set some kind of volume-based safeguards,” he said.

With no time or data limits, it’ll be up to the companies to figure out when their customers are abusing roaming. Although they can slap surcharges on abusers, they will have to take their grievances to their national regulators.

“The burden of proof is now on the telecoms operator,” said one industry source, who asked not to be named because of the controversy. “The Commission decided not to decide … and leave it up to national regulators.”

Addressing roaming is part of a broader legislative package from 2013 designed to create a telecoms single market for the EU’s 500 million residents.

The newest version is expected to be presented in the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee on Monday. The draft will then be reviewed by the EU telecoms regulator, BEREC, which will evaluate the plan and give its verdict October 15.

Member countries will have the final say in December.

“Where we will end, I don’t know,” Ansip said.

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