According to Bloomberg, EU data roaming charges may not be abolished as quickly as Kroes would like...
Getting support from a struggling wireless industry wary of anything that may cut off a revenue source and the dozens of local regulators eager to keep control over their phone networks is proving difficult. Regulations that cut the prices that carriers can charge for roaming or the wholesale prices that competitors have to pay to access their networks are already a burden, the companies have said.
“Price regulations have become a permanent feature of the market and are hampering investments,” the industry body ETNO said to the commission in June in a letter signed by the CEOs of Orange, Telefonica, Telecom Italia Spa (TIT), Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) and others, provided to Bloomberg by a person directly involved with the negotiations. “The current framework is not adequate to allow operators to generate sufficient cash flows to foster investments in new state-of-the-art network infrastructure.”
It has also been hard to get other commissioners on board. Cabinet advisers to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding and Algirdas Semeta, the tax commissioner, have given negative initial opinions on Kroes’ plan, people familiar with their thinking said, without detailing why.
Before the proposals can be submitted in September, they’ll need sign-off by the 28 commissioners, typically reached by consensus rather than a strict vote. Once submitted, they’ll need the backing of lawmakers in the European Parliament and EU nations before it’s made law across the 28 countries.