MOBILE TELEPHONY : EP PREPARES TO CAP SMS ROAMING FEES.

After the price of mobile calls, the European Parliament is ready to cap the price of SMS sent from one EU country to another (roaming) to 11 eurocents per message against 29 eurocents, the current EU average. It also wants to bring down the extortionate cost of internet data, video and music downloads with a mobile phone from abroad.

"We all agree on the merits of the free market, but we have to put an end to the monopolistic attitude of old operators," said Paul Rubig (EPP-ED, Austria), the rapporteur on the first roaming regulation in 2007 (only on calls). He was speaking at the end of a debate organised by the EPP-ED group, on 8 January in Brussels.

With the support of the Conservatives, the new proposal for a regulation on the price of SMS and data should go through first reading without a hitch. Member states already agree.

The caps set out by the Commission and taken up by the Council - 11 eurocents/SMS for the retail market and four eurocents/SMS for the wholesale market (between operators) - seem to satisfy the EP. The same applies to capping - only at wholesale level - at 1 the fee for one megabit of downloaded data. According to Rubig, such a cap at wholesale level broadly leaves enough of a margin for operators to make money from these new services. Today, there are tariffs of 0.25 per megabit on the market, against the extremes of 15 per megabit.

18-MONTH EXTENSION

Rubig, also the spokesperson of the EPP-ED for telecoms, advocates, on the other hand, an 18-month extension of the roaming...