EU plans to abolish mobile roaming charges – comment from Robin Kent at Adax

Robin Kent, director of European operations at Adax, comments: “The EU’s announced plans to abolish roaming charges will have grave implications for the telecoms sector, as profit from the charges is integral to operators.

“While I agree that roaming charges have been excessive in many cases over the years, I believe mobile operators are getting their act together.  A great deal of ground has been made in terms of reducing charges and providing ‘bill shock’ applications.

“What the EU has failed to realise is that there is a cost to the operators of providing roaming services.  If they cannot recover those costs, operators may have to reduce the roaming services they offer. Losing roaming profits will leave operators unable to invest in new infrastructure projects such as 4G.

“Abolishing roaming charges can only result in the service, and the end user suffering as a result.”