29.06.2007

Travellers pay less for mobile calls in the EU countries

Charges for making and receiving mobile calls within the Community will be reduced. The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on roaming will enter into force on 30 June 2007. The regulation sets a price ceiling for making intra-Community mobile calls. Both consumer and business prices, and the wholesale prices network operators charge one another will be affected by the price ceiling. In addition, the regulation imposes other obligations on operators such as providing information on roaming call charges.

According to the price ceiling i.e. "Eurotariff", the maximum charge of calls made to other European countries is EUR 0,5978 a minute, and the maximum charge of received calls is EUR 0,2928 a minute, both prices including VAT. The expected annual reduction in these prices is a few eurocents per annum. Consumers and business clients must be able to benefit from the Eurotariff within three months from the entry into force of the regulation. Operators will inform their customers of the Eurotariff and its entry into force in more detail.

The new regulation will be in force for three years, and at this stage, it regulates voice calls only. Eighteen months after the entry into force of the regulation, the Commission will provide the European Parliament and the Council an assessment where it can propose an extension to the validity period of the regulation and to set a price ceiling also for SMS and MMS services and data transfer.

In Finland, FICORA is responsible for monitoring that the obligations set in the regulation are complied with. For example, FICORA will follow the development of roaming prices bi-annually and report the results to the European Commission.

Further information:
Johanna Juusela, Director, tel. +358 9 6966 878, mobile phone +358 40 542 7132.
Torsti Alhava, Senior Advisor, tel. +358 9 6966 461, mobile phone + 358 50 514 8285