International Herald Tribune
06-07-2007
A 50 percent to 70 percent drop in the rates for cross-border mobile calls should be plenty for Europeans to celebrate this summer.But sewn into the European Commission's radical move to contain the rates, set for final approval by the Council of Ministers on Thursday, is an even better deal for consumers: tangible information about charges and choices.Don't celebrate too much, though. Cellphone calling plans and roaming rates will still be complicated, and you need to spend some time figuring out just what is the most cost-effective approach for your typical use.So what happens now? Do you have to do anything special to get the new rates, which you will come to know as the Eurotariff?Levi Nietvelt, a legislative analyst at BEUC, the European organization that represents 40 consumer advocacy groups in 37 countries, and someone who played an active role in putting the regulation into place, walked us through the process.If you do absolutely nothing, you should see the effects on your phone bill no later than October. But if you are proactive, you could benefit sooner, maybe even in time to get some of your of the calls you make during summer vacation covered.From the law's effective date, which is expected to be no later than July 1, your mobile phone company has one month to inform you about the changes.Most likely, you will get a text message on your phone with the notification. You may also get a notice in your monthly phone bill or be directed to the carrier's Internet site.But about 60 percent of Europeans are prepaid, which means they top up their accounts as needed and have no billing relationship with the carrier, so the only way the phone company can reach them is to send an SMS.From the moment of that initial notification and for the next three months, you must apply with your carrier to sign up for the Eurotariff.This is the three-month ''opt-in'' clause the carriers won in their lobbying over the proposal; the companies know that the vast majority of customers will miss the opportunity to sign up early.But if you sign up for the Eurotariff as soon as you can, the carrier has another month to switch you over to the new rates. Nietvelt maintained that it is a simple billing adjustment that the carriers can do quickly and efficiently, and he challenged them to make it happen within a day of your opt-in request, rather than within a month as required by law.For the rest of us who haven't gotten around to opting one way or the other, the next step will be Oct. 1 - assuming the regulation takes effect July 1. That's when the lower rates will automatically kick in. You will know this because from then on, every time you roam across borders, you will get a text message from the network alerting you about your personal billing plan.Yes, those pesky ''Welcome to our network!'' messages that pop up on our cellphones will now actually be useful and informative. They are required to tell you what roaming-rate plan you are subscribed to and to give you a phone number to call if you want to change that.This is important because you may be on a plan with your carrier - like Vodafone's Passport package - that already gives you better rates than the new fees. Here's where you have to spend some time looking at the fine print.And if you are on one of those plans, you will stay in that package unless you proactively choose to move to the Eurotariff.Those national-border text messages will be a good prod to consumers who travel only occasionally to make sure they are in synch with their usage. If you happen to be a frequent roamer who doesn't need to be reminded at every channel crossing, you can ask your carrier to turn off the notification messages.For Nietvelt, those text-message reminders about your personal tariff plan are as valuable as the cap on prices.''At least there will be some information where there wasn't before,'' Nietvelt said. ''You can't expect competition to work if there's no information.''
2007 Copyright International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com
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