INTUG Europe Report on GSM Roaming Prices - 1999

Users are increasingly concerned by the apparently arbitrary and often exorbitant charges for roaming services on their mobile telephones. Charges seem to have no relationship to costs or to best practice. Service providers make little effort to inform customers of the charges they will incur. Competition is limited in GSM markets, initially two then more slowly a third and sometimes a fourth. The introduction of competition is severely limited by governments supporting to domestic new entrants the dominant incumbent. In such circumstances it is all too easy for prices to become concerted. Roaming appears to exist outside of competition and regulation. Companies need to be alert to the costs of roaming, which may be found in bills paid in many different budgets. The European Commission and National Regulatory Authorities need to consider whether the pricing strategies of the GSM operators are in compliance with the various directives, domestic legislation and individual licences. At the very least, they need to seek explanations for the substantial price differences. Given the imminent arrival of third generation telephony, GPRS, WAP and so on it is necessary to consider whether a single internal market requires much more harmonisation than is presently evident. There is a strong case for some operators being able to offer trans-European services based on simple and comprehensible charges. This survey will be repeated in 2000 and a similar survey is being undertaken in Asia-Pacific