The European Commission has said that the European Parliament and European Council are expected to approve measures that could see a radical restructuring of the European roaming market.
The EC said today that it has reached a preliminary deal with members of the Parliament and Council to approve proposals it made last year to allow customers to strike separate “roaming” deals with different service providers to their “home” provider.
A release from the EU said it expects Parliament to approve the proposals in May, and the Council in June.
The EC’s proposal is for a second line “dual-IMSI solution” that allows a customer to shop around for the best deal and sign up for a separate mobile contract for roaming, which may be different from their domestic mobile provider, whilst keeping the same phone number. Each time the customer crosses a border, his or her phone will switch to the network of the roaming provider which they have chosen, without any further action on their part. Customers will also have the option to directly select a local mobile network for data roaming in the country they are visiting.
The EC hopes that this structural change, which could see operators competing for roaming revenues from in-bound roamers, will achieve through market mechanisms the sort of price reduction that can currently only be achieved through wholesale and retail price caps.
Although the EC says it expects approval from the other EU bodies, its proposals were criticised at the time by some operators and others. A response, made in August 2011 from BEREC, the association of European national telecoms regulators, said that while the dual-IMSI solution had “some attractions”, BEREC was cautious about the extent of the benefits which can realistically be expected.
BEREC’s own competition analysis suggested “there is a risk that the proposed measure will deliver little incremental benefit for the mass market, insufficient to justify the considerable time, effort and cost necessary to implement the proposal.”
BEREC said in August that it was looking for a less complex solution, which will deliver benefits to all consumer segments, quickly and without undue expenditure of time and resources on implementation. BEREC also urged that a decision be taken on the implementation of a specific structural solution only when it is clear that such a solution is available which commands the support of a critical mass of the market players.
The regulators also noted that the Commission‟s parallel proposals to reduce wholesale prices and introduce a general right of wholesale access for roaming purposes, can already be expected to deliver material competition benefits in the medium term.