Abstract
Europe has been the first region to intervene on the market for international roaming services. The first regulation was introduced in 2007 and has since then been revised several times. The latest revision took place in the summer 2012. This paper discusses the new legislation in view of recent market developments from a technological, economic and a regulatory perspective. The paper concludes that roaming charges have been reduced substantially since the introduction of prices caps, but still the charges are far above a level, which can be justified by the production costs. A number of alternatives to tradition roaming have been developed, but so far their impact on competition have been limited, and it will take some years before the present regulation can be lifted.
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Notes
The Commission recommended in May 2009 that MTRs should include only the incremental costs and not the fully distributed costs. This will lead to a drop in MTRs, and they will not recover the full cost anymore (BEREC 2010).
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Falch, M., Tadayoni, R. Regulation of international roaming data services within the EU. Int Econ Econ Policy 11, 81–95 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10368-013-0246-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10368-013-0246-7