The Eurotariff arrives
Viviane Reding’s much-vaunted Eurotariff arrived this weekend. The European Commissioner for Information Society and Media has been aggressively pushing for a “fairer” deal on roaming for subscribers who travel across borders.
Sunday was the official deadline for European carriers to introduce tariffs no higher than 49 eurocents per minute for calls made abroad and no higher than 24 eurocents for calls received abroad, excluding VAT.
The Commission reckons EU consumers who have signed up to schemes launched prior to the deadline have been paying up to 70 per cent less for using their mobile phone in Europe.
The debate about eurotariffs is a good one. But what about the disaparity between roaming now outside the Eurozone . it seems to me that similar to the setting of international settlement rates by the FCC some years ago, Eurozone regulators could get a better deal for European consumers (and indeed stop the outflow of Euro funds to other markets) if there required operators to meet certain target prices for non-Eurozone roaming .. this would be fair and equitable.
What do others think? Does the Eu think its job on this issue is complete?