The European Parliament (EP) voted overwhelmingly yesterday in favour of slashing Europe’s mobile telephony roaming charges. Malta’s charges are among the highest in the EU and Maltese consumers are expected to begin benefiting from new reduced rates by mid-

summer.

The agreement will see the maximum retail charge for a roaming – a mobile call made or received while abroad – capped at EUR0.49 per minute for calls made and at EUR0.24 per minute for calls received, both excluding VAT.

The cap for outgoing calls will reduce automatically by three eurocents per year, while the cap for incoming calls will reduce by two eurocents after the first year and by three eurocents after the second year.

Maltese MEP Joseph Muscat, a member of the EP’s industry committee, had penned the consumer protection aspect. Speaking yesterday, he commented: “We kept our word. Eighty per cent of European consumers will benefit from the new tariff automatically, while the remaining – most of which are businesses and already pay competitive prices – will still have the right to request their operator to switch them to this tariff. This means that the rights of consumers, especially the most vulnerable ones, will be protected.”

Also welcoming yesterday’s vote in a joint statement, Nationalist MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa said: “For Maltese consumers this will mean enormous savings”, adding it was “another concrete benefit of EU membership”.

But in addition to the so-called new harmonised Eurotariff cap, telephony providers will also be able to offer “a fair use, all-inclusive monthly flat-rate to which no charge limits apply”. Such a flat rate would include both voice and data roaming services such as SMS and MMS.

The Telecommunications Council will be expected to formally endorse the agreement on 7 June, after which it will be published in the Official Journal.

The EU’s German presidency had said it would “pull out all the stops” to have the regulation in place as fast as possible. It had suggested an implementation date of 29 June, which was deemed as not soon enough by Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding, who drafted the Commission’s proposals.

As such, an implementation for consumers by mid-June can be expected.