BERLIN, GERMANY — The European Commission this week expects to propose legislation capping the cost of sending and receiving text messages while roaming, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune. The regulation could cut the cost of SMS messages by as much as 70-percent.The legislation follows by a year legislation cutting voice call charges in the face of rising consumer unease about cell-phone-service pricing.
The proposal includes measures that would cap retail roaming charges at between 11 and 15 euro cents (17 to 23 U.S. cents) per message. Inter-operator fees would drop 4 to 8 euro cents.
The inter-operator reductions could take effect as early as October, following a public comment period. The consumer-pricing component of the legislation requires the approval of the European Parliament and Council of Ministers but could become effective by next summer. Commissioners feel comfortable the governing body will approve the legislation, as it has been endorsed by all 27 national telecommunications regulators in the European Union
“As with voice roaming, most members of Parliament think there is a clear need for intervention with SMS roaming,” Paul Rübig, a Austrian member of the European Parliament who last year sponsored the price caps on voice roaming, told the IHT. “There is a huge discrepancy in SMS roaming prices within the EU, and the high prices that many consumers are paying are simply not justified by the costs.”
Current average retail roaming charges for text messages is 29 cents. The average inter-operator charge (the fee service providers charge each other to connect calls between networks) is 8.5 cents, according to the commission.
Commissioners also may decide to extend the fee caps to mobile data roaming, which would benefit consumers who download music and videos and surf the internet on their mobile phones. No such measures exist in the proposed legislation, however.
Analysts estimate roaming fees generate between 5- and 20-percent of the total SMS revenues of most mobile operators.
