Press Conference by EU Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva

The New EU Roaming Rules at a Glance Texting abroad: no more than 0.11 per SMS as of 1 July 2009 Data roaming: anti-bill shock measures + wholesale cap at 1 per Megabyte Voice roaming: –by 2012, roamed calls abroad will cost no more than 0.34 per minute for calls made and 0.10 for calls received –Principle of per second billing for all roaming calls (20% consumer savings)

New EU Roaming Rules: the single market objective Making the single market come true on the mobile phone bill of Europes 500 million consumers Sending text messages or surfing the web via a mobile phone while in another EU country should not be substantially more expensive for consumers than sending text messages or surfing the web at home.

Why does the EU act now? In 2007, the European Parliament called on the Commission and national regulators to monitor prices for SMS and data roaming Review clause in EU Roaming Regulation: In 2008, the Commission must propose whether regulation for these services is required

Current situation - SMS Roaming charges unchanged since 2007: SMS average is around 29 cent Roamed SMS can cost 10 times higher than texting at home No justification for high prices if we look at operators real costs (less than 1 cent)

Current situation - SMS

Commission proposal – SMS The price per SMS an operator charges another at the wholesale level should not exceed 4 cent The charge for an SMS at the retail level for all EU citizens should not exceed 11 cent (excl. VAT)

Voice roaming: One year after Prices are up to 60% lower thanks to the EU Roaming Regulation of 2007 Still, most prices are very close to the maximum allowed ceilings No signs of sustainable competition

Commission proposal – voice calls Price caps prolonged until 2013 Per minute prices to decrease: –from 46 cent to 34 cent for calls made (1 July 2012) –from 22 cent to 10 cent for calls received (1 July 2012) Reduction every year by 3 cent Always as of 1 July

Commission proposal – per second billing The hidden charge: –Today, consumers pay on average 24% too much for roamed calls abroad –19% for calls received abroad A single market problem: –Per second billing normal for national calls Per second billing to apply: –at the latest after the first 30 seconds –immediately for calls received

Hidden charges per country

Current situation – data roaming Prices still very high: 5.40 Euro per Megabyte (EU average) Data roaming prices range from 0.25 to over 16 per MB Bill shock and high wholesale charges remain a serious problem

Bill shocks are common

Current situation – data roaming

Commission proposal – data Improved transparency to inform and empower customers on usage of data services –Basic information to be provided immediately –Customer to be able to set a cut-off limit Wholesale safeguard cap of 1 per MB

Roaming II Regulation - roadmap Today: Commission Proposal adopted, transmitted to EP and Council Political Agreement in Council: under French presidency Adoption: before European Parliament elections (June 2009) Entry into Force: 1 July 2009 Next Review:

Back up slides

Size of the EU Roaming Market Market Size and segments (Euro, million ) Voice; SMS; Data;

Impact of the new EU Roaming Rules SMS reduction – consumer benefits of over 1.2 billion Per-second billing – Consumer gains of nearly 1 billion per year Data – consumers to be able to make fully informed choice and volumes expected to increase considerably