UK regulator hits out at data roaming

IT WAS inevitable really. After Viviane Reding pushed through the so-called ‘eurotariff’, we’ve now got Ofcom’s Ed Richards saying that operators should look at data roaming and SMS roaming charges.

Richards - who heads the UK's comms watchdog, Ofcom, is apparently speaking at a meeting of the European Regulators Group (ERG) where he will complain that it costs UK subscribers around £4.11 per megabyte to send or receive 1 Meg of data.
That contrasts with about £1.50 per MB while in the UK and a European average of around £3.90.

Eddie reckons that this pricing is damaging businesses as it would cost the typical business person and arm and a leg to receive a typical Powerpoint presentation.

Thus a four slide presentation sent to the INQ by Sequoia would have cost £12.30 to receive at the MWC show in Barcelona.
The most bizarre outburst from Eddie Richards is about a hidden 20 per cent charge. He complains that if you only talk for 20 seconds, you still get charged for the full minute.

Matthew Howett, a senior analyst with Ovum, told the INQ that this is a strange complaint since 'rounding-up' calls to the nearest minute is common practice in the UK and not just amongst mobile operators. So it doesn't make sense to focus on this as a hidden 'roaming' charge.

Howlett also made another interesting observation. What is the point of stirring up discussion over data roaming now, when the EU has promised to investigate the whole area by 2010? Reding as much as promised to do so back when the original 'eurotariff' was introduced in July 2007.

There are also legal arguments to be settled. It's one thing for the Commission to ask operators to make fair charges for voice calls whilst roaming, but several European operators have challenged whether the EU has the power to set retail prices for such calls.
Surely it would be better to wait for that one to be settled through the courts before embarking on further price fixing for data and SMS roaming charges?

Tom Phillips, head of public policy with the GSM Association (GSMA), pointed out to the INQ that data roaming charges are dropping rapidly. Last time the ERG itself published an index, prices had dropped by 40 per cent in one year. Another such index is due out in May/June 2008.

"That's a pretty dramatic drop and it reflects a situation where usage is increasing very quickly – thus enabling the operators to drop their own charges quickly, too." µ

See also
UK's Big Four join hands to fight the EU