A group of businesses, including mobile network Three, are lobbying the government, with a view to gaining support for a reduction in the cost of data roaming across the EU.
The concern surrounds a forthcoming vote that will see the European Commission's Roaming III proposals voted on, that will set data roaming prices until 2022. Whilst year on year cuts are planned, by 2014 costs will still be around £400 per 1 GB of roaming data, compared to a cost of under £10 for data usage at home.
In an open letter to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, Three, along with various other groups including consumer group Which?, and the Federation for Small Businesses, claim that wholesale prices operators charge each other for for data roaming are largely to blame for the high charges.
The letter states “Data usage on mobile devices is exploding and the Commission's proposals in their current form do not address the demand for data in 2012, never mind 2022. These pricing levels do not encourage competition and hence could put the brakes on growth and competition in the EU.”
The concerns of the group are that if cuts are set in place as recommended by the Commission, the cost of using a mobile for data roaming in Europe could end up costing more than the holiday itself.
An amendment to the bill proposed a group of MEP's recommends cuts in the cost of data to less than €0.10 per megabyte, which would give a price of around £100 per 1 GB, and the group are urging the Minister to support this amendment.
“While consumers make the most of their smartphones, data roaming charges force them to limit their internet usage the moment they leave the UK,” said David Dyson, CEO of Three UK. “High wholesale data charges are the cause, and we believe these should be capped at €30 per GB or less to make the internet accessible wherever consumers want to use it. With average data use for our smartphone customers approaching 1 GB a month this is a real consumer issue.”