European Commission backs away from data roaming caps; T-Mobile says just use Wi-Fi
Fabio Colasanti, the EC’s director general for information society and media, says that the Commission prefers not to impose caps on the roaming charges that mobile operators charge their customers for data use. This seems surprising given that Viviane Reding, the Commissioner for information society and media, has been threatening to lower data roaming prices. Instead, the EC now says the operators should inform their customers better about how much data they are using.
Recent incidents involving people who received bills amounting to thousands of Euros at the end of the month have prompted the EC to look into the way in which operators are billing people for data roaming. There’s no way of knowing in real time, how much data you have already “consumed” in Euros. I think the lack of transparency is precisely how the operators make money from data subscriptions. If you don’t know how much you have already been billed, you will keep using your cellular connection abroad to send and receive data.
T-Mobile’s regulatory counsel, Robyn Durie, says: “People can always use Wi-Fi.”
I don’t think the operators will lower prices much in the near future. They make too much money from data roaming charges and they fear that the cellular networks cannot support so many people sending and receiving data at the same time. The successful launch of 3G iPhone in Europe will put a strain on networks as more people use the device for data, not voice.
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