PURPOSE: to regulate the functioning of national
wholesale roaming markets in order to abolish retail roaming
surcharges by 15 June 2017.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European
Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative
procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: abolishing retail roaming surcharges is an
essential step towards ensuring that telecom rules support the
establishment and functioning of a digital single market across the
Union. This target was also stressed in the Digital
Single Market Strategy set out by the Commission.
In 2015, the European Parliament and the Council
adopted Regulation
(EU) 2015/2120, which entered into force on 29 November 2015
and amended Regulation
(EU) No 531/2012 (the Roaming Regulation).
Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 requires retail roaming
surcharges to be abolished in the Union from 15 June 2017,
subject to fair usage of roaming services and the possibility of
applying a sustainability derogation mechanism of the abolition of
retail roaming charges. These new rules for retail roaming services
in the Union are referred to as the
roam-like-at-home (RLAH) rule.
While necessary, the regulation at retail level alone
is not sufficient to implement RLAH. National wholesale roaming
markets need to be competitive and deliver wholesale roaming
prices that enable operators to sustainably offer retail roaming
services without any additional charges.
In this regard, the Commission has undertaken a
review of the wholesale roaming market, with a view to
assessing measures necessary to enable the abolition of retail
roaming surcharges from 15 June 2017.
The review
shows in particular that wholesale roaming markets do not always
function properly. The impact of these market failures on
the functioning of wholesale markets results in prices
substantially above estimated costs, in particular for
data.
Another conclusion of the review is that it is not
possible to anticipate with certainty the impact of the future RLAH
obligation, and in particular the expected increase of roaming
traffic, on competition on national wholesale roaming
markets.
In light of the problems identified, the Commission
considers that the current measures applicable on the wholesale
roaming markets should be amended to ensure that the level of
wholesale roaming charges enables the sustainable provision of RLAH
in the Union.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: amongst the 4 options considered,
the preferred option consisted of setting EU-wide wholesale
roaming charges caps at a lower level than today. Under this
option, legislation would reduce the current wholesale roaming
charges caps and would also ensure that RLAH enters into
force.
CONTENT: this proposal for a regulation is meant to
complete the rules on roaming, in particular with regard to
wholesale roaming markets, in order to abolish retail roaming
surcharges by 15 June 2017 without distorting the domestic visited
and home markets.
The Commission proposed to make the following
amendments to the Roaming Regulation:
- add the possibility for the parties to a wholesale
agreement to waive the application of maximum wholesale caps
provided in Articles 7, 9 and 12 of the Roaming
Regulation;
- reduce the current wholesale roaming charges caps to
EUR 0.04 per minutes of call made, EUR 0,01 per SMS
and EUR 0,0085 per megabyte of data transmitted;
- ensure consultation of the Body of European Regulators
for Electronic Communications (BEREC)
in disputes concerning inputs necessary for the provision of
regulated wholesale roaming services;
- ensure that the Commission submits a report to
the European Parliament and the Council every two years after 15
June 2017;
- clarify BERECs data-gathering
powers: BEREC shall regularly collect
data from national regulatory authorities on developments in retail
and wholesale charges for regulated voice, SMS and data roaming
services, including wholesale charges applied for balanced and
unbalanced roaming traffic respectively.