EU to Limit Roaming Rates

After an informal meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of the world's biggest high-tech fair, the CeBIT, European Information and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said the bloc would likely sign off on regulations in the first half of the year capping roaming charges at 50 euro cents ($0.66) per minute.

"In order to arrive there it will be very intense work," she said.

Reding did not mention a possible maximum charge for calls received when cell phone users are traveling outside their home country, but her spokesman provided the figure of 25 euro cents per minute.

Both prices given would be before the value-added tax levied by member states.

Operators ignore issue

Earlier German Economics Minister Michael Glos, whose country holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, said "the will to reach an accord on roaming was demonstrated" at the meeting.

"We cannot count on the market to regulate it -- that is over," he said. "But in the process of dealing with the matter, competition among the operators and the incentives for innovation must not be endangered."

The ministers voiced their support for structuring the rules as simply as possible and keeping potential bureaucratic hurdles to a minimum.

Thursday's gathering was the last before a formal ministers' meeting in Brussels June 6 and 7.

The European Parliament will vote in May on the issue, amid serious strain between telecommunications firms and the European Commission.

The commission, stating a goal of driving down roaming charges by 70 percent, put forward proposals in July for reducing the rates. Frustrated that operators had paid little heed to calls for lower roaming fees -- a surcharge that the EU estimates brings in 8.5 billion euros each year -- the commission suggested fixing the wholesale roaming rates that mobile phone companies charge each other.

It also proposed to cap the retail rates that companies can impose, as well as the cost of calls received abroad.

Merkel could win points with public

A final area that still requires a compromise is the cost of calls made locally with a foreign cell phone, for example if a German tourist calls a taxi in France. The commission has proposed a maximum charge on such calls of 33 euro cents per minute.

Germany has set the target of getting a roaming deal under its EU presidency, running until the end of June, so holidaymakers can enjoy cheaper rates while abroad next summer.

"That would be a great victory for the (EU) presidency of (Chancellor) Angela Merkel," Reding said.