Cheaper Calls

After three weeks of tough negotiations, EU governments and the European parliament struck a tentative agreement on Tuesday capping how much operators can charge their customers for calls made and received while in other EU countries.

"After difficult negotiations, we have come up with a viable compromise on the roaming regulation," said conservative Austrian MP Paul Rübig, who led the talks at the parliament.

The compromise still needs to be formalized, first by members
states' experts on Wednesday, then by a vote before the European Parliament in a plenary sitting next week, and finally by EU
ministers on June 7.

"We now have a solid compromise on the table that can get
backing from everyone," said German Economy Minister Michael Glos, adding that "with a little goodwill we can get an agreement."

Under the agreement, rates for calls made while in other EU countries would be capped in the first year of application at 0.49 euros ($0.66) a minute. Receiving calls could cost no more than 0.24 euros. The ceiling for so-called roaming services would come down even lower in the second year, falling to 0.46 and 0.22 euros and then 0.43 and 0.19 euros in the third year.

Deal has mobile industry up in arms

The European Commission drew up the plans to regulate roaming rates last year. It had found evidence of huge variations between operators' prices, with some roaming calls costing up to six times those of local mobile calls.

The package has the industry up in arms. It has argued that fierce competition has already driven down prices and has been lobbying hard to get the plans watered down.

Even though the deal brought mobile phone users closer to
cheaper roaming rates, the BEUC European consumer association was left unimpressed by the compromise.

"For us, the roaming rates remain high," said spokesman
Dominique Forrest. "It's a first step, but as it is on the table,
it's not enough."

The French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir was even more critical of the agreement, charging that it still allowed operators to make huge profits on the back of mobile phone users.

"The compromise gives in to the current excuse for a market
which allows operators to have huge margins on calls received or
made while abroad even though the cost is close to that for national calls," it said in a statement.

Consumers can't benefit from deal on their summer holidays

Although the new regulations could go into effect as early as mid-July, according to a diplomat, mobile phone users will not be able to benefit from the new rates until after the summer holiday period.

The European Commission had hoped that the new rates would be in place by the summer holidays.