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Feb. 22, 2007

At a critical time when the European Union Telecommunications commissioner is in the process of trying to reduce roaming fees paid in Europe, consumer watchdogs charge that the operators’ new fee-reduction plans don’t reduce at all the cost of any mobile calls!

A group of large wireless operators, including T-Mobile, France Telecom and TeliaSonera, have attempted to pre-empt the impending legislation which would go into effect before the end of this year.

The proposed legislation would promise to reduce roaming fees by at least fifty percent.

However, the mobile operators are "playing with the words", according to European consumers’ organizations UFC-Que Choisir and BEUC.

“Right from the beginning, they have organized collusion and on a very large scale throughout the EU Community,” said Alain Bazot, president of the UFC-Que Choisir.

“Contrary to many industry claims, there is no evidence of a reduction in roaming charges at all for consumers in recent times,” the groups’ statement reads.

The consumers' rights organizations are complaining that companies' promotional plans are “very complex, difficult to understand and have no overall appreciable effect on charges.”

BEUC stated that it believes consumers shouldn’t pay more than $0.44 for a call made outside their home countries, which is below the $0.59 maximum proposed by the EU.

The group said its suggested tariff would still leave mobile operators room to make a good profit on international calls, as the lower price would spur more people to make voice calls when abroad.

On average, roaming charges bring in about $11.18 billion a year, accounting for 5.7 percent of the industry’s revenue, and up to about 15 percent of its profit.

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Source: Wireless Week