EU reaches preliminary pact on roaming charges

IDG News Service - BRUSSELS - European Union lawmakers reached a preliminary agreement yesterday on how to curb excessive charges for consumers who use mobile phones outside their home country.

The compromise between European parliamentarians and the German government ends two weeks of tough negotiations. Germany held out for a better deal for mobile phone operators and the parliamentarians pushed for lower prices for consumers. The German government was representing the position of the national governments of the 27 E.U. member states.

If the entire European Parliament and a majority of the member states support the agreement, consumers will initially pay 66 cents per minute to make phone calls abroad and 32 cents per minute to receive calls. Both groups will take up the agreement during meetings in the coming weeks.

The law will go into effect as soon as the telecom ministers sign the agreement.

A year after the agreement becomes E.U. law, the roaming charges will drop to 62 cents and 29 cents respectively, European Parliament officials said at a press conference. Two years after its adoption, they will fall again to 58 cents and 25 cents per minute.

Wholesale roaming charges also will be reduced over a three-year period, from 40 cents in the first year the law is enforced, 37 cents in the second year and 35 cents in the third year.

Initially, subscribers will have to set their phones manually to benefit from the agreed tariff ceilings but three months after the law goes into effect, all mobile phone subscribers will automatically benefit from the reduced price.

"After difficult negotiations, we have come up with a viable compromise on the roaming regulation," said parliamentarians Paul R??big and Angelika Niebler in a joint statement. They had negotiated the compromise on behalf of the European Parliament.

"We are confident that we can find a majority in parliament's political groups for this compromise. Council now must also accept it," they said.

The spokesman for the German government wasn't immediately available for comment.

The commission gave a cautious welcome to the compromise. "The talks in this morning's meeting were very constructive. Now council and parliament will have to resume their internal deliberations. We are confident that a good outcome is within close reach, but the final word belongs to the European Parliament and to the council," it said in a statement.