The EU Big Stick is Coming Again

It’s been an interesting year for the Mobile Voice Network Operators, they have seen some growth and a lot of changes richness of services they have offered. However the biggest impact has been the EU implementation of regulations on the roaming costs of Mobile Voice. This was previously an area that was very profitable and for those individuals or companies who are or have regular travellers a major headache and area of cost focus.

So the EU appears to have solved this one, although Viviane Reding spoke about a lack of downward convergence of termination costs, so we will see if this topic is closed.

But that’s not the end of the story when it comes to roaming as we don't just talk on the phone any more. As SMS, MMS and email become more prevalent then the cost of data services is something that will increase in terms of pain and noise around the EU Regulator. Mobile Data roaming is expensive and in some case eye wateringly so.

A certain UK corporate has recently run up a bill of £250,000 with a MNO and they are still wondering what to do with this bill. There has to be questions asked about the reality of pricing when these things happen.

So last week the clock started ticking... Viviane Reding spoke at the conference "Is it the right TIME?"- The future regulation of the Telecom, Informatics, Media and Entertainment sector in the EU, Budapest

Here she stated that it will be firstly for the national regulators to look at the pricing of roaming on Data Services and SMS/MMS. She hinted that if there is no clear leadership and action then there will definitely be another push from the EU Regulator now to drive these costs down too, something the MNOs will have to be concerned about.

Its not something that has appeared on many people's radar as users, but if you go on holiday and txt your friends as to which bar to meet in or MMS your family back home or even connect your laptop with a data device to sync email and surf the web then you probably will notice a bigger bill on your return.

How long will it be till the current niche MVNOs start to offer their clever roaming solutions?