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Mobile broadband roaming caps ruled legal as telco's lose EU court action
09 Jun 2010 | 13.04 Europe/London
The European Court of Justice has backed the EU’s cap on mobile data, texting and voice roaming charges.
European mobile operators, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica and O2, were challenging the caps on roaming fees which were first implemented three years ago on voice (a maximum of 49 cents to make a call per minute and 24 cents to receive). They were most recently extended to data and this July a new rule comes in to effect ensuring that customers must be prevented from receiving more data when their data roaming bill hits 50 Euros in a month. A warning message must be sent to subscribers when they hit 80% of the maximum allowed and only those who explicitly request to go above the 50 Euro cap will be allowed to do so. The rule is designed to help cut back on the problem of bill shock when people return from an overseas holiday or business trip.
The ECJ’s decision will come as a blow to the major European mobile broadband networks and was accompanied with a warning from the EU that it would ideally like to see roaming charges within the single market dispensed with by 2015.
European mobile operators, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica and O2, were challenging the caps on roaming fees which were first implemented three years ago on voice (a maximum of 49 cents to make a call per minute and 24 cents to receive). They were most recently extended to data and this July a new rule comes in to effect ensuring that customers must be prevented from receiving more data when their data roaming bill hits 50 Euros in a month. A warning message must be sent to subscribers when they hit 80% of the maximum allowed and only those who explicitly request to go above the 50 Euro cap will be allowed to do so. The rule is designed to help cut back on the problem of bill shock when people return from an overseas holiday or business trip.
The ECJ’s decision will come as a blow to the major European mobile broadband networks and was accompanied with a warning from the EU that it would ideally like to see roaming charges within the single market dispensed with by 2015.