EU over-protecting data ‘roamers’?
Posted by: ivan.mifsud
in Ivan Mifsud´s Category
on Mar 12, 2010 
I travel abroad a number of times a year, and practically always take my laptop with me. I also have a mobile internet subscription, which allows me access to the web practically anywhere. Except that when I leave Malta I incur steep charges, presently listed on the website of my service provider at 5 Euro per megabyte! Correction, let me state that ‘I risk incurring steep charges’ because in reality my set up is such that overseas internet roaming is blocked unless I inform my service provider that I want to unblock it. Something I have never done, because I have always managed to work my way around the system by looking for ‘free wifi’ spots for example at certain retail outlets. The conferences I attend usually offer internet for free too. On the other hand, since I value my internet connections highly (though not enough to fork out 5 Euro per MB) a press release issued by the EU caught my attention.
The EU passed a 'roaming regulation', which is now coming into force.
The EU press release states:
‘As from 1st March 2010, European mobile phone operators are obliged under EU roaming rules to offer their customers a cut-off limit facility to protect them from 'bill shocks' for surfing the Internet with their mobile phones and laptops while travelling in other EU countries. Under the roaming rules adopted by the EU's Council of Ministers and European Parliament in June 2009 ... this cut-off mechanism will, following a warning, cut consumers' mobile connection to the internet while abroad when their bill reaches a specified limit….Under roaming Regulation No. 544/2009, mobile phone operators are obliged to offer their customers from 1st March 2010 a monthly cut-off limit of €50. They can also offer customers any other limit. They will receive a warning when they hit 80% of the chosen limit. Until 1 July 2010, customers need to make a deliberate choice in order to benefit from a cut-off limit. But, customers who do not make a choice by 1 July 2010 will have the cut-off limit set at €50 by default as from that date.’
The same press release goes on to refer to ‘horror stories’ experienced by consumers, for example a German traveller downloading a TV programme while roaming in France faced a bill of no less than €46 000. In another recent example, a UK student was reported as receiving a bill of almost €9 000 for data roaming during a single month while studying abroad.
So, overall, the EU’s initiative is welcome. I agree that the consumer needs protection. The consumer needs to know how much a service costs, what a 'megabyte' is, how many megabytes he is downloading too. On the other hand, I cannot help but ask certain questions. Namely, is the EU being just a little bit over-protective? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that to download a TV programme means downloading hundreds of megabytes of data, if not a gigabyte or more. Everybody also knows that roaming is very expensive, more so when it comes to internet usage (as opposed to telephony). Should the consumer not be mature enough to know what to do, or not to do, without the EU Commission standing up to hold his hand? I am referring to the compulsory mechanism, being imposed by default. Is this not going a bit too far? Is the consumer unable to control himself?
To query pricing, to guard against price-fixing, to make sure that the consumer is informed about pricing and related matters, is one thing. The consumer must be in a position to take an informed decision. But to regard the consumer as so immature and so potentially irresponsible that his service must be cut off, seems a little bit too much. Industry is strong, and obviously is out to rake in the highest return on its investment possible. But, in my opinion, this does not justify the over-protection of the consumer, in this case the imposing of a cut-off. Over-protection cannot be a good thing.
To view the press release, proceed to http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/215&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
The Roaming Regulation is available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDF
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