This Berec report provides an overview of the transparency and comparability of retail roaming tariffs. roaming tariffs berec

In July 2020, BEREC sent a questionnaire to operators and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) in order to gather information for the period September 2019 to July 2020 on two aspects that are key issues for customers when selecting tariffs for international roaming services: Firstly, transparency, meaning the availability of clear information about prices and conditions for each tariff, as well as simple procedures for customers to switch between tariffs; and secondly, the comparability of tariffs. By comparability, BEREC means the ability for customers to compare different types of tariffs offered by operators and to select the one best suited to their needs and patterns of consumption.

Transparency is key to enabling customers to make informed decisions. According to the Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union as amended by the TSM Regulation 2015/2120 and Regulation 2017/920, (hereafter Roaming Regulation”) and the Commission Implementing Regulation 2016/2286 (hereafter “CIR”) customers should have easy access to understandable information on prices and conditions for each existing roaming tariff including its Fair Use Policy (FUP) if applicable.

According to the Roaming Regulation, it should also be possible to switch between roaming tariffs quickly and conveniently. BEREC has collected information on the structure of international roaming tariffs.

About alternative tariffs in addition to regulated roaming tariffs, around 30 % of the responding operators said that they offer alternative roaming tariffs. According to the answers received, BEREC has also noted that roaming providers in addition to the EEA also include non-EEA destinations to their RLAH tariff plans. BEREC intends to analyze under which conditions non-EEA countries are included in RLAH tariff plans in further transparency and comparability reports.

Finally, on the structure of roaming tariffs, this year’s evaluation confirmed the findings of previous years concerning tariffs without roaming. Mainly data only and fixed mobile convergence plans do not include roaming options because in general a high domestic data volume is granted in those tariffs.
Regarding the availability of 4G data roaming services, 41 % of the operators stated that they offer 3G roaming services in the EU/EEA even where 4G would be available and 13 % of those operators are not planning to provide 4G roaming services by the end of 2020 or don’t have any plans at all.

Concerning 5G, BEREC observes that operators have started implementing 5G across Europe, however, the speed of implementation varies between Member States and operators. Yet, there is no nationwide 5G coverage in any of the Member States. Therefore, it is too early to draw any conclusions about 5G and roaming.

Structure of tariffs roaming tariffs berec

Under Article 6a of the Roaming Regulation, roaming providers shall not levy any surcharge in addition to the domestic retail price on roaming customers in any Member State for any regulated roaming calls made or received, for any regulated roaming SMS sent, and for any regulated data roaming services used, including MMS, nor any general charge to enable the terminal equipment or service to be used abroad, subject to Articles 6b and 6c of the Roaming Regulation.
Nevertheless, roaming providers are entitled to apply surcharges exceptionally in case a fair use limit is reached or in case the sustainability of their domestic charging model is at risk and they have applied for and been granted a derogation from the RLAH rules by the competent NRA. Detailed rules on the application of FUP and on the methodology for assessing the sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges are contained in the CIR.

Moreover, roaming providers are allowed to offer alternative tariffs according to Article 6e (3) of the Roaming Regulation in addition to regulated roaming services. Lastly, mobile providers are not obliged to offer roaming services and therefore can restrict tariff plans or services to domestic use only.

Comparability of international roaming tariffs roaming tariffs berec

Roaming services have generally been sold as additional services in a bundle that includes domestic mobile services. In the retail market, the focus of competition has been on domestic services because, for the majority of end-users, domestic services are of prime importance. The abolition of retail roaming surcharges has overturned the premise for comparing retail roaming tariffs: unlike the complex variety of prices and packages for retail roaming available before, roaming consumption within the EEA should now be deducted from the domestic allowance (except for domestic tariffs with charges per unit).
The FUP and sustainability surcharges are, however, factors that influence the cost of roaming services and might make comparisons of tariffs more complex. Alternative tariffs for roaming may also contribute to the variety of tariffs. In any case, the availability of information to allow the comparison of different tariffs is a first step towards empowering customers to make informed decisions on mobile and roaming offers.

Guidance for customers to estimate data traffic and tools to select a tariff

The major factor determining the price of tariffs offered to customers is the volume of data included in the package. Therefore, it is important that customers can estimate their capacity needs in order to be able to make an informed choice. Any tool estimating future data usage is supposed to help customers choose the most suited tariff.

In order to review the availability of any resources that aid informed decisions BEREC asked whether consumer associations and operators offer information, applications, or other tools to estimate the consumption of data services and to decide which kind of tariff to select based on given estimated consumption.
34 % of the responding operators confirmed that they provided end-users with information on how to estimate data services consumption based on the use of Internet services such as web browsing, e-mails, and specific applications such as Google Maps or WhatsApp.

15 % of the responding operators confirmed that they provided applications to help consumers to select the most adequate tariff, including intra-EU roaming based on their estimation of consumption.
As the above numbers show only a minority of providers actually have interactive tools where the customers’ consumption patterns are the starting point for selecting the most adequate tariff. Most likely, the demand for this type of service is not sufficient to attract operators to introduce them due to the wide availability of consumption history for the customers and also a range of external comparison engines throughout the internet.

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