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Reding's cellular roaming law proves a real attention getter

Roaming charges, although high, rarely impact the daily phone bills of most mobile users. You'd never guess that, though, from the vast range of interest in the law, promoted by EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding, and now passed by the European Parliament.

The official announcement includes opinions from several European MPs

Most widespread take was the AP comment, which was printed with obvious approval by American papers in particular, focusing as it did on "free market" versus "regulated" economies.

"For years, Europeans have enjoyed low-cost flights that have revolutionised travel across the continent," said the anonymous AP story, adding: "Now they will be able to make a cheap mobile phone call home to say they made it... but while bargain flights are a result of a well-functioning, competitive market, the roaming fees mobile operators add to the cost of a call made or received abroad will be regulated by the EU amid complaints that the system hasn't worked."

Ironic, then, that: "The telecom industry has likened the caps to a communist-style planned economy regulation and has said it may increase the cost of local calls in response."

The other "mass market" version of the story from Ingrid Melander at Reuters, focused on practicalities: when, how much?

Melander quoted Reding, who said "the EU could also regulate the price of mobile phone data -- such as text and audiovisual messages (SMS and MMS) -- if prices did not fall," stressing that national regulators would watch prices closely in the next 18 months.

"In the first year," continued the Reuters report, "the EU-wide maximum roaming tariff will be 49 euro cents ($0.67) a minute for making calls abroad and 24 cents for receiving them. It will fall to 46 and 22 cents in the second year and 43 and 19 cents in the third, respectively."

But, Melander observed, it might not be that big a deal. "The timing of the measure means many of the EU's 150 million mobile phone users will miss out on the benefit if they take their summer holidays in July. The price cap will only become automatic for all customers two months after the offer is made."

Many reports made much of the absurdities of the roaming rip-off, discussing the iniquity of a call from one side of the French-German border to a town the other side.

Few actually tried to assess the total volume of roaming call charges, who where the impact was mostly felt.

One analyst told NewsWireless: "It won't make as much difference as people seem to think. For a start, several carriers have anticipated the legislation and started scaling back on their roaming charges a year ago. Vodafone will be able to claim that its average cost per minute for making and receiving calls is already lower than the new EU tariff."

Also, the average mobile user was only slightly affected, said this analyst. "It's a shock to get a bill after your two-week holiday in Greece or Spain, perhaps. But as a proportion of your annual phone spend, it's a one-off. Corporate users have roaming deals with their network providers, and don't pay anything like the headline rates. So it's a good PR stunt for Reding, but in reality, it isn't going to affect the carriers a lot."

Some observers predicted that the carriers would actually benefit, saying that with lower charges, they might carry more calls. Others predicted a cut-back in infrastructure investment in holiday resorts.

Bill Hughes, principal analyst at Instat, told the E-Commerce Times it will have a negative affect on carriers by lowering capital investment in areas where roamers tend to travel. "With high prices for roaming, a wireless operator would happily spend whatever it takes to make sure those calls were able to get through. With lower prices for roaming, there is not as much incentive. This would hurt coverage along roadways and vacation areas." Hughes then took time out to preach a free-market sermon: "Government crossing the boundary to regulate private industry is rarely a positive," Hughes opined.

"Today is a good day for consumers and business travellers in the EU," said EU Commissioner Viviane Reding.

It may be an even better day for EU Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Eu official announcement here

All major comments here!