How the new EU new roaming regulation could affect the telecoms sector
This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.
On 18 March the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) approved the draft Telecoms Single Market Regulation, which proposes to ban roaming charges for voice, SMS and data before the end of 2015.
The 18 March draft regulation still needs to be approved through a plenary vote in the European Parliament on 3 April, followed by approval by the European Council, which is likely to submit some amendments, leading to a second plenary vote by a new parliament, following the May 2014 elections.
In an Open Media White Paper, Purvi Parekh, Olswang Partner and co-Head of the Telecoms practice, explains that the legislation will not need to be transposed into national law before going into effect. "It's advantageous for consumers in that roaming rates will come down a lot sooner, which is one of the reasons why the European Commission is keen to implement it through a regulation rather than a directive as this will be directly applicable in all member states without the need for local implementation into national laws," she said.
According to a communication by the European Commission published last September, a strong and dynamic telecoms sector supporting innovations such as Cloud computing, new tools that use Big Data, connected cars, smart manufacturing, the Internet of Things, smart cities, modernised public administrations, e-Health and e-Education, could add €110 billion annually to Europe's GDP.
Purvi Parekh added: "It would encourage outside investment as well, because a continent that has 28 different regimes is a big burden for an investor. You have to decide which countries you want to go into, and what the regulatory regime looks like in each of these countries. Through the Connected Continent proposals, much of this will fall away. The Commission wants to get to a point where you will be able to look at investing or operating in Europe as one digital continent, rather than 28 mini ones."
Purvi Parekh also commented on the possibility of base prices rising: "We have to acknowledge that the mobile operators, like any other company, are still businesses. If we want them to keep innovating and to keep coming up with new ways of doing things and making services better, they do need to make money somewhere. Still, competition will likely keep base prices in check."
Purvi Parekh will be discussing the new roaming legislation and its effects on European Telecoms markets at the Open Mobile Summit (19-20 May, London). For more information on the Open Mobile Summit conference programme and speaker line-up, visit: http://openmobilemedia.com/london/
"European digital economy reignited by roaming regulations" is a White Paper by Open Mobile Media and is available for download at http://analysis.openmobilemedia.com/
