9. International Roaming

On 30 May 2012, the EU Council adopted the new Roaming Regulation, which came into force on 1 July. The new regulation will be effective for a period of ten years until 30 June 2022, and establishes a set of measures to reduce the maximum prices of the voice-Eurotariff, SMS-Eurotariff and Data-Eurotariff, and the maximum prices of average wholesale voice, SMS and data tariffs, to promote competition and ensure tariff transparency.

The latest version of the Roaming Regulation lays down rules to permit the sale of regulated international roaming services separately from the sales of domestic mobile services and defines the conditions governing wholesale access to public mobile communications networks for the provision of regulated roaming services. In line with the previous regulation, this regulation also makes provision for transitional rules applicable to the tariff that can be charged for the provision of regulated roaming services for voice calls and SMS originating and terminating within the EU, as well as for data communication services with packet switching, used by consumers with roaming in the EU. They apply both to charges levied by network operators at wholesale level and to charges levied by providers of roaming services at retail level.

In summary, structural measures established in the regulation are aimed at achieving a long-term solution to the lack of competition, introducing consumer choice and seeking to ensure that the market is opened up to different types of suppliers (thereby increasing the range of roaming offers available and broadening the choice available to end-users). As such, end-users will be able to subscribe to a roaming service on a stand-alone basis, while caps are maintained on wholesale rates as well as caps to safeguard the cost of these services at retail level, ensuring that existing consumer benefits are preserved during a transitional period while these structural measures are applied.

From 1 July 2014, mobile service customers will be able to subscribe to intra-EEA roaming offers provided by roaming operators other than their domestic operator. From the same date, roaming customers will also be entitled to switch roaming provider free of charge within 3 working days following the conclusion of an agreement with their new roaming operator.

In addition, mobile network operators are obliged to meet all reasonable requests for wholesale access to their networks for the purposes of offering roaming services. In this respect, they are required to publish a reference offer, as from 1 January 2013, taking into account the guidelines of BEREC. The three Portuguese mobile network operators published their reference offers on the date specified.

The regulation also establishes rules to enhance price transparency and improve the provision of information on tariffs to users of roaming services.

In this context, operators now have the obligation to automatically provide their customers (by means of a message) with basic personalized information on roaming tariffs applicable to voice, data or SMS communications when customers enter a country that is outside the EU/EEA, as already provided when end-users enter an EU/EEA country.

The previously established obligation, whereby operators are required to offer their roaming customers, free of charge, a service that provides information about the accumulated consumption of data using roaming and which ensures that accumulated spending on this services does not exceed 50 euros (suspending provision of the service when this limit is reached), is also extended to when the customer travels outside the EU. The only exception is when the operator of the visited network does not allow the roaming operator to track their customer's consumption in real time. In this case, the customer must be notified free of charge by SMS when entering a country where it is not possible to obtain information about their cumulative consumption of data and where it cannot be ensured that consumption does not exceed a certain financial limit.

As a result of the Regulation, in 2012, there was a reduction made to wholesale and retail prices associated with the international roaming service, with a cut in the prevailing tariff cap. However, the Eurotariff caps do not invalidate the existence of complementary intra-EU/EEA roaming voice, SMS and data tariffs not subject to these caps.

As identified in the following table, the maximum values established by the regulation in the context of intra-EU/EEA roaming voice communications differ, depending on whether applicable to the Eurotariff (retail level) or at wholesale level (excluding VAT).

Source: ICP-ANACOM. Amounts in euros.

It should also be noted that, as in 2011, calls are to be billed per second, with a minimum initial billing period which cannot exceed 30 seconds. The possibility of this initial billing period, does not apply, however, in the case of incoming calls.

The maximum prices applicable to SMS retail tariffs originating and terminating in the EU (Euro-SMS) and the respective average wholesale tariff, as in force from 2009, were amended on the same date. There changes are shown in the following table (excluding VAT).

Source: ICP-ANACOM. Amounts in euros.

The maximum average wholesale tariff per megabyte was also reduced on 1 July 2012 with respect to data communication services with packet switching used intra-EU/EEA in roaming, compared to the maximum value in force (see table below). A further tariff cap was introduced at retail level, to ensure that end-users also benefit from reductions in the maximum wholesale values specified in the Regulation. As such, the retail value (excluding VAT) of the data-Eurotariff that a provider of roaming services can charge their customers for provision of regulated roaming data services may not exceed 0.70 euros per megabyte used, as from 1 July 2012.

Source: ICP-ANACOM. Amounts in euros.

It is noted that mobile operators in Portugal have been in compliance with the maximum values stipulated in the Regulations, and for some segments have also made additional tariffs available to customers beyond those corresponding to these maximum prices.