EU lawmakers give thumbs up for decrease wholesale roaming charges

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By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU lawmakers on Thursday backed lower cost caps on wholesale roaming charges paid by telecoms operators to friends in one other EU nation, extending for a decade a coverage that advantages shoppers.

The European Parliament and EU nations had reached a political deal in December final yr. The subsequent step shall be for the latter to offer their formal settlement within the coming weeks for the worth caps to return into drive.

The European Fee scrapped retail roaming expenses and launched value caps on wholesale roaming expenses in 2017, saying this might spare shoppers from ‘invoice shock’ once they return from their holidays overseas.

Telecoms suppliers in southern European nations choose to maintain wholesale value caps as excessive as potential to learn from vacationers making calls dwelling, whereas operators in northern Europe, whose residents are inclined to vacation overseas, sometimes argue for decrease caps.

Underneath the political deal reached final yr, the wholesale voice tariff shall be capped at 0.022 euro per minute subsequent yr and go all the way down to 0.019 euro in 2025 till 2032.

Wholesale charges for textual content messages shall be restricted to 0.004 euro per message subsequent yr, and at 0.003 in 2025 to 2032.

Information tariffs shall be capped at 1.80 euros per gigabyte subsequent yr, 1.55 euros in 2024, regularly reducing to 1 euro in 2027 to 2032.

“By considerably reducing the wholesale caps, we create extra equity and competitors on the telecommunications market,” EU lawmaker Angelika Winzig, who steered the difficulty by means of the meeting, mentioned in a press release.

EU lawmakers had initially sought larger cuts within the value caps than what the European Fee had proposed whereas EU nations, lobbied by telecoms suppliers, wished smaller reductions.

The Parliament mentioned the Fee would look into probably reducing the prices of intra-EU calls, that are the surcharges for making calls from one EU nation to a different and now capped at 19 cents, following calls from lawmakers.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Enhancing by Susan Fenton)



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