Mobile phone network operators Vodafone and T-Mobile both announced on Monday that they are lowering their international roaming charges, a move that won them a tentatively positive response from the European Commission.
The cuts follow a recent announcement from Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, that she intended to regulate the market in order to force down the cost of using a mobile phone abroad.
Vodafone announced a reduction in European roaming prices of 40 percent, to be in place by April 2007 at the latest. This follows on from the introduction last year of their Passport service, which allows customers to use their phones abroad at domestic rates, provided they pay a connection fee of 75p per call.
T-Mobile is also introducing a flat-rate package. From 1 June, it will charge contract and pre-pay customers 55p per minute to use their phones in North America and Europe. T-Mobile claims this represents a reduction of between 20 percent and 54 percent, depending on whether the customer is on contract or pre-pay.
Commissioner Reding has called on the mobile operators to charge their customers the same rate across Europe, effectively eliminating roaming charges in the region. Although Vodafone and T-Mobile's moves don't go this far, the EC has still given them a cautious thumbs-up.
"The Commission welcomes everything that goes in the right direction in terms of the reduction of international roaming costs," said Vincent Frederic, a spokesperson for Ms Reding's office, in an initial reaction to Monday's news.
Frederic added that although the Commission does not comment on specific commercial announcements the move was "a very good sign for the industry", but that the EC still wanted more from "other players".
Max Miller, T-Mobile’s head of roaming, told ZDNet UK that the timing of the tariff’s announcement had nothing to do with the EC’s proposals. "This the time of the year for this kind of announcement," he said. "It’s the time to get the roamers to take notice."
"This has been done in isolation of what the EC has said and is also part of a strategy we’ve been delivering this year of simple and clear rates," Miller claimed.
Vodafone said the price reductions were part of "an ongoing process of offering better value" to the operator's customers. A Vodafone spokesman said that Vodafone agreed that prices must come down, but disagreed with the Commission on how this should happen.
"The commission seems to be suggesting regulation is the way," the Vodafone spokesman told ZDNet UK. "We say the market is the best mechanism for ensuring better services and value".
T-Mobile said it believed "initiatives like these are a better way of reducing roaming rates than regulation". It also claimed to have been a long-standing campaigner for lower roaming costs.
Commissioner Reding's office has been conducting a public consultation into the price of roaming in Europe, which will close at the end of this week.
