Report on Transparency and Comparability of International Roaming Tariffs

Article 19(4) of the Roaming Regulation requires BEREC to collect information on the transparency and comparability of the different retail roaming prices that are offered by the operators. In that respect. Therefore, based on information gathered from the NRAs and operators the BEREC has published its 2nd BEREC Report on transparency and compatibility of tariffs.

The Report demonstrates that customers face a wide variety of international roaming tariffs ranging from linear tariffs (such as the Eurotariff) to daily, weekly or monthly bundles that include different roaming services and to specific tariffs where domestic tariffs are also included. Many providers also offer approaches similar to “roam like at home” tariffs as per default alternative tariffs where customers can use their domestic bundle when roaming, although generally restricted to EEA countries or within the footprint of the group. The majority of these offers include some fair-use limitations and not a strict application of domestic rates. Some offers include a connection fee (daily set-up fee) and allow customers to use their domestic bundle while roaming in EEA countries, or on specific networks defined by the provider.

Most operators report that they provide extensive information on conditions and prices for each tariff on their websites and inform customers about tariffs by sending SMS or USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) messages. However, the responses indicate that a big number of operators do not inform their customers when they reach a time or volume limit and how services are charged when the usage has reached this limit.

Providing data on real-time consumption is still not sufficient. However, it is noted that providers have improved their performance in relation to the provision of real time information on consumption compared to the 2013 Report. Currently around 68 % of the operators provide some kind of real time information on consumption via a customer area on their webs.