This BEREC Benchmark Report on International Roaming (the “Report”)presents the results of the twelfth round of data collection on European international roaming services undertaken by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The Report covers the period 1 April 2013 – 30 September 2013, i.e. quarters 2 & 3 2013. The Report also includes data from previous rounds of data collection conducted by BEREC and its predecessor, the European Regulators Group (ERG), to provide context for the current figures. The earliest data is from quarter 2nd 2007, when the Roaming Regulation was about to enter into force.

The applicable regulatory framework for this data collection is the Roaming Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 (Third Roaming Regulation) applied in the EU (European Union) and the EEA EFTA countries[1], with requirements for retail and wholesale regulated tariffs for voice, SMS and data roaming. In addition, Switzerland contributed to the data collections, although the 2007, 2009 and 2012 Roaming Regulation is not applicable there[2].

BEREC is required regularly to collect data from national regulatory authorities on the development of retail and wholesale charges for voice, SMS and data roaming services and to notify those data to the Commission under the Roaming Regulation – Article 19 paragraph 4.

BEREC believes that the information collected in existing and subsequent reports provides a sound basis for any decisions regarding future regulation. In addition, BEREC considers it important to collect and publish a wider range of information in order to give a better picture of the effect of the EU Roaming Regulation and to present the evolution of roaming services.

While the monitoring obligations are addressed to individual NRAs, BEREC considers that it can add value by pursuing the following objectives:

·         Simplifying the process, not only for NRAs as BEREC acts as a central point for the data collection, but also for the Commission, as the data is received from a single source and, following data processing;

·         Coordinating the actions of individual NRAs, as the data collection exercise uses a single and commonly agreed data collection model, and the process is synchronised and based on the same collection periods. BEREC consults the market players and the Commission before finalising the data collection templates;

·         As far as possible, providing a common response to the different questions posed during the collection process by operators and NRAs, as BEREC serves as the forum where these questions are commonly debated and addressed.