Starting Saturday, June 30, 2007, the Regulation adopted in Luxembourg by the 27 EU Member States, which settles the gradual decrease of the international roaming tariffs in mobile networks, came into force.
According to the Regulation adopted on June 7, 2007, the maximum tariff for the initiation of a call abroad shall be 0.49 euro/minute + VAT during the first year of adoption, while during the following two years shall decrease to 0.46 and respectively 0.43 euro/minute. For the received calls, the Regulation provides a maximum tariff of 0.24 euro/minute for the first year, 0.22 euro/minute for the second year and 0.19 euro/minute in the third year.
During July, all the mobile telephony companies which offer international roaming services must contact their clients in order to offer them explanations on the tariffs offered for such type of services. The clients shall decide afterwards whether they choose the new euro tariffs or comply with the provisions of the contract previously concluded, should they benefit already from preferential tariffs for the roaming services. If they do not opt for the euro tariff and they do not have a subscription which would stipulate preferential tariffs for the roaming service, the euro-tariff shall be automatically applied on them.
The roaming service clients which, by the entry in force of the Regulation, have already deliberately chosen a specific tariff or a specific roaming package, other than the roaming tariff which would have been applied if they had not have done such a choice, and which have not expressed their option, shall be charged according to the tariff or package previously chosen. The tariff requested must be activated no later than a month from the receipt of the client’s request by the operator located in the client’s native country.
Moreover, at the end of September, the mobile telephony operators shall be obliged to send to each client that crosses the boarder an automatically generated SMS. The message, which may be deactivated by the persons who do not wish to receive it, shall contain explanations regarding the costs when initiating or receiving a call. Furthermore, the operators shall have the obligation of offering more detailed information related to the tariffs to the persons requesting it.
On the wholesale market, the value of the tariff paid at the offset between operators for the roaming calls must not exceed 0.30 euro/minute + VAT in the first year, 0.28 in the second and 0.26 euro/minute in the third year since the enforcement of the Regulation. On the other hand, the regulation of the wholesale tariffs shall be enforced within two months from the entry in force of the Regulation hereby.
The regulation regarding the roaming tariffs, examined by four specialised commissions of the European Parliament, was subject to a long series of consultations, public hearings, impact analyses, as well as intense negotiations carried between the Members of the Parliament, on the one hand, and the European Union’s German presidency, on the other hand.
The National Authority for Communications and Information Technology is the institution entrusted with the monitoring and surveillance of the compliance with the provisions of the Regulation on Romania’s territory and it is empowered to request all relevant information in this regard from the operators of mobile public telephony networks.