APPENDIX 3: CALL FOR EVIDENCE
1. The Internal Market Sub-Committee (Sub-Committee
B) of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union
is undertaking an inquiry into issues raised by the European Commission's
proposal for a Regulation on roaming on public mobile networks
within the Community (11724/06 COM(2006) 382 final).
2. The objective of the draft Regulation is to
ensure that users of public mobile telephone networks when travelling
within the Community do not pay excessive prices for international
roaming services when making and receiving calls, thereby achieving
a high level of consumer protection while safeguarding competition
between mobile operators.
3. Sub-Committee B's inquiry will address the
following issues:
(i) Do you consider charges for making and receiving
calls on mobile phones when in a different EU Member State to
be appropriate or excessive as some have argued? Do you think
there is currently sufficient competition in the market?
(ii) Is it appropriate for the Commission to
introduce legislation to cap the cost of roaming?
(iii) Do you think that the mobile telecoms industry
has done enough in the last two years to address, through self-regulation,
concerns expressed by the Commission? Are National Regulatory
Authorities in a co-regulated environment able to address these
concerns on their own?
(iv) Does the proposed Regulation risk narrowing
down the space for competition and thereby harming innovation
and investment in the sector?
(v) Do you think that the pressure for lower
roaming charges could potentially spill-over into higher prices
for other mobile telephony services? Would you anticipate any
other unintended consequences that may affect consumers?
(vi) Do you think that the proposed regulation
will allow non-EU operators to take advantage of lower wholesale
roaming prices in the EU through international trade agreements
and arbitrage opportunities?
(vii) Is the Commission's estimate that 147 million
EU citizens are affected by excessively high international mobile
roaming charges accurate? Do you have any other figures to offer?
(viii)Do you think that the UK and French proposal
for a sunrise clause during the initial period after the Regulation
comes into force can better achieve the desired effect? Should
legislation apply solely to wholesale fees rather than retail
tariffs?
(ix) Do you believe that separate sub caps for
making and receiving calls should be applied or a single average
cap? Should the linkage between Mobile Termination Rates and wholesale
prices, and percentage mark-ups for determining retail prices,
be retained or should target prices simply be included in the
regulation?
19 January 2007
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