The European Association of Full-MVNOs was invited to speak in the second Stakeholder Forum organised by the BEREC. Jacques Bonifay, Chair of EAFM, defended the view of full-MVNOs on international roaming by stressing the need for effective wholesale regulation.
The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) stakeholder forum that took place on Thursday 16th of October in Brussels aimed at strengthening the dialogue between BEREC and the relevant stakeholders but also to support the consultation process on BEREC’s strategy for 2015-2017, its work programme for 2015 and its preliminary findings on “Roam-like-at-Home”. The forum gathered amongst others high-level representatives of stakeholder associations at European level, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) and the European Commission.
In the session on the “Future models of Roaming”, the Chair of EAFM expressed the views of full-MVNOs on international roaming and noted the importance of MVNOs for competition. He welcomed the policy objectives of the European Commission to abolish retail roaming charges but he warned on the need to ensure it does not damage competition, lead to the exclusion of MVNOs or act against the wider interests of mobile users. In particular, he stressed for a proper revision of wholesale roaming legislation in Europe. “It would not be acceptable to introduce roam-like-at-home (RLAH) without modifying wholesale regulation. MVNOs have no bargaining power concerning wholesale roaming rates and rely on effective wholesale regulation.” Such rates varied considerably across Europe, which gives rise to a practical problem. “In the absence of such wholesale reforms, MVNOs would be forced to withdraw from offering roaming services. In some countries where roaming was particularly important, this could even imply withdrawal from the market.” EAFM shares the BEREC analysis that RLAH should be an economically viable option for all providers, should not give rise to significant re-balancing of tariffs for domestic services and that wholesale reforms should be introduced sufficiently in advance of RLAH (at least 6 months in advance).
EAFM’s presentation can be found here.