The European Commission has proposed a price cap on cross-border phone calls in Europe and asked for veto power over sales of mobile spectrum, as part of a fresh attempt to overhaul the bloc’s telecommunications sector.
Other elements of the proposals include cutting red tape for operators with cross-border businesses, allowing providers to charge more for carrying data-heavy services at high speeds and harmonising the sales of lucrative mobile spectrum by EU countries.
The proposals are intended to encourage telecom companies to invest more in broadband network infrastructure to ensure that European citizens can download data from the Internet as quickly as their counterparts in Asia and North America.
The Commission said it also hopes that limiting costs in the bloc, where international mobile calls vary from 35 cents to 1.19 euros (HK$3.60 to HK$12.25) per minute, will benefit businesses. It said a projected 0.5 per cent fall in operators’ revenues would be offset by more usage.
“The European Commission says no to roaming premiums, yes to net neutrality, yes to investment, yes to new jobs,” EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes said in a statement.
Kroes’ plan would cap the cost of cross-border phone calls in Europe at the price of a long-distance domestic call and also limit, to 19 cents a minute, the price for users making calls on a mobile phone while travelling in Europe. Charges for receiving calls would be scrapped.
For her entire plan to become law, Kroes will have to win the blessing of all 28 EU governments and the European Parliament.