BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European lawmakers clinched a deal early on Wednesday to cap the wholesale charges mobile service operators pay each other to enable their customers to use their mobile phones in other European countries, paving the way for the abolition of roaming fees in June.

A man makes a phone call using his mobile phone at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, May 16, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo

The caps on wholesale roaming charges were the last piece of the puzzle needed for the abolition of retail roaming charges on June 15, 2017, to ensure companies can afford to continue offering roaming within the EU once they can no longer charge retail customers for the service.

Under Wednesday’s agreement between lawmakers and the Council of EU member states, wholesale charges for data - which were the most controversial given the exponential use of mobile Internet - will be capped at 7.7 euros per gigabyte from June 2017, going down to 2.5 euros per gigabyte in 2022.

Caps for making calls will decrease from 5 euro cents per minute to 3.2 euro cents per minute, while those for sending text messages will halve to 1 euro cent from 2 euro cents as of June, said the Council.

“Goodbye roaming,” tweeted Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, the EU lawmaker who negotiated for the setting of wholesale rates on behalf of the European parliament.

The European Commission - the EU executive - will review the wholesale caps every two years and propose new ones if necessary.

Wednesday’s deal still needs to be confirmed by the full European Parliament and all member states.

The decade-long battle against roaming charges took on an added significance after Britain voted to quit the bloc last year in a surge of anti-EU sentiment, making Brussels keen to demonstrate the benefits of membership to ordinary citizens.

“Today we deliver on our promise,” said Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president.

But after the agreement to abolish retail roaming charges in June this year, policymakers grappled with the challenge of who would foot the bill as telecom operators still need to pay each other to keep their customers connected abroad.

The difficulty was compounded by wide differences in domestic prices and consumption patterns across the bloc, making a wholesale cap that suited all national markets extremely hard to settle.

Countries in northern and eastern Europe where consumers gobble up mobile data at low prices favored lower wholesale caps to avoid companies raising prices in their home markets, effectively making poorer customers subsidize frequent travelers.

However countries in southern Europe where tourism is vital to their economies worried that if wholesale prices were too low their operators could be forced to raise domestic prices to recover the costs.

While politicians were quick to proclaim the end of roaming charges, some mobile service operators warned that the wholesale caps were still too high, which would force smaller operators to limit their ‘roam like at home’ offers.

“European citizens expect the end of the roaming surcharges to happen without losing competitive tariffs and innovative offers,” said Innocenzo Genna, vice-president of MVNO Europe, which represents mobile virtual network operators who do not own a network, such as Fastweb [SCMNSF.UL], Sky and Liberty Global .

“With the present deal on wholesale caps, they will be heavily disappointed,” he added.</s>KARACHI: The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) and the Karachi Police have joined forces to stop mobile phone snatching in the metropolis.

As part of their efforts, the CPLC and police department on Wednesday released guidelines for sale and purchase of used mobile phones.

Authorities on Wednesday made it mandatory for the sellers and purchasers to fill a document providing personal information and technical details of the device.

Below are the guidelines that must be followed by the dealers:-

1- Shopkeeper will verify that the device is not stolen or snatched by contacting CPLC helpline 1102 .

2- Shopkeeper will be booked under Section 411 of Pakistan Panel Code if he is found selling a stolen or snatched phone. Apart from being penalized, he will have to reimburse the money to purchaser.

3- Shopkeeper will demand photostat of national identity card of citizens before purchasing used mobile phones.

4- Shopkeeper will obtain verified mobile phone number of the person who is selling his used device.

5- Shopkeepers will seize a mobile phone if it is found stolen or snatched and inform the CPLC, SIU and the Market Association.

6- Shopkeeper will not indulge in illegal act of unblocking a mobile phone that has been blocked by authorities.

7- Shopkeeper will maintain record of all the mobile phones that he sells or purchases.

CPLC, police join forces to stop mobile phone snatching in Karachi was posted in National of TheNews International - https://www.thenews.com.pk on February 01, 2017 and was last updated on February 01, 2017. This news story is related to Latest/183275-CPLC-police-join-forces-to-stop-mobile-phone-snatching-in-Karachi/ - breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. Permanent link to the news story "CPLC, police join forces to stop mobile phone snatching in Karachi" is https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/183275-CPLC-police-join-forces-to-stop-mobile-phone-snatching-in-Karachi.
Negotiators reach a preliminary deal on capping mobile phone intercarrier (wholesale) tariffs. Roaming charges on voice and data calls for consumers within the EU are expected to be terminated on June 15, 2017.