Orange introduces flat-rate roaming across Europe

On Tuesday Orange announced two roaming packages designed to significantly cut rates for mobile voice and data users. The new voice roaming offer, Favourite Countries, is designed for users who travel regularly abroad or who live or operate on borders, and offers lower call rates in exchange for a flat monthly subscription fee of €5. Customers designate countries from a list of eligible destinations and then pay reduced rates when calling anywhere in the EU from those countries. For data charges, Orange introduced a flat-rate fee plan called Travel Data Daily, charging €12 to €15 for 50 MB of internet access within the EU.

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In February EU commissioner Viviane Reding demanded that European mobile network operators lower their prices for international data services or face regulation, setting a deadline of 1 July for mobile operators to adjust their policies, after which she will take up the matter with the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. At the time Reding suggested that sending a text message or downloading data in another country should not be significantly more expensive than doing so at home.

Orange said the reduced voice call rates are expected to be between 18 per cent and 60 per cent lower than ordinary roaming rates. They say customers of Orange France will pay €0.37 per minute for outgoing calls instead of €0.59. The offer is available immediately in France and Romania. It will be introduced in the UK, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia and Switzerland during the summer, and in Poland in September.

Orange say the data charge plan is aimed at occasional data roamers, and estimated that the charge is up to 90 per cent lower than users could expect to pay under standard data roaming rates. The plan will be rolled out during the summer in the UK, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium and Romania and by the end of the year in Slovakia. Vodafone also offers flat-rate data roaming.

Orange denied that the the moves are specifically a response to the EU's roaming demands, arguing they demonstrate healthy competition in the roaming market. In a statement Brigitte Bourgoin, executive vice president of mobile operations for Orange, said "The data roaming market specifically is undergoing transformation from a business to business market to a mass market. As the volume of usage increases... prices are and will continue to decrease,". According to Moneysupermarket.com, previously, Orange customers paid £8 per megabyte while roaming.

Among commissioner Reding's demands in February were roaming packages that enable users to transfer data in all 27 EU countries for the domestic rate, plus a small one-time fee, as well as greater clarity on fees and reductions to wholesale rates. The GSM Association has said it will oppose any attempts at regulation, arguing the natural evolution of the data roaming market will drive prices down.

(Matthew Broersma)

(jbe)