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Friday, 03 August 2007 |
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At least 21 European mobile operators miss EU deadline on new transborder tariffs. Perhaps they mislaid their diaries: as befits money-grabbing cartelists.
Name and shame: how boring is that? Operators in Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania and UK are either not responding to EU prompting on the introduction of its ‘Eurotariff’ norm or have fallen behind the schedule. The latter would see offers out from 01 July, entering into force by 30 July. Oops! That deadline has passed.
So convoluted is the interpretation of the new EC-mandated price norms, standardised on €0.49 for making calls and €0.24 for receiving calls abroad, that it is hard to say who exactly has complied with what exactly. Already, giants O2 of Spain, Orange of France and UK-based Vodafone are under suspicion.
"Today, just one month after the new EU rules on mobile roaming charges came into force, around 50% of consumers in Europe are already profiting from substantially reduced tariffs. The interplay between regulation and the voluntary anticipation of the regulated tariffs by industry appears to benefit consumers, as envisaged by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers", said Viviane Reding, EU Telecom Commissioner. "I welcome in particular that many operators offered the new Eurotariff as the holiday season began, and that some even went substantially below the regulation's price ceilings. Only in a few cases – the exception rather than the rule – we note attempts to delay the effects of the regulation by non-transparent or possibly even anti-competitive behaviour. These will have to be analysed very carefully by national and European regulators. If we find evidence for behaviour that violates the law, the EU Roaming Regulation foresees sanctions which could be complemented by the full force of competition law."
An interesting game for those of you who travel across Europe would be to click here and see how the official tariff compares to that you actually pay. The rip-off goes on, as operators seek to buy an extra month or so against ‘Eurotariff” – just when you may be going on holiday.
Jim Chalmers
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