Telefonica's ( O2 UK ) Regulatory Chief, Robert Mourik, has predicted that demand and not the promised European Union intervention will ultimately be what drives the price of EU Mobile Broadband (data) roaming down as low as the domestic market by 2015. The news comes from ZDNet UK, which has just started a campaign against heavy handed roaming costs.

At present a UK mobile operator like Three (3) will currently sell you a Mobile Broadband package with a 15GB monthly usage allowance for just £15.99 per month with a FREE USB Modem (Dongle). However, those wanting to leave the UK shores and go online with the same setup will suddenly find themselves paying £1.28 per MegaByte (£1,310.72 per GigaByte!); operator dependent.

The European Commission (EC) has already set out its plan to tackle this under their Digital Agenda for Europe (here) and the first official proposals are due to surface next month. Still, Telefonica expects roaming and domestic prices to reach near parity without the Commissions involvement.


A single operator's testimony, even from one of Telefonica's scale, is unlikely to stall the EC's plan to intervene. Indeed many other operators believe that low data roaming costs could actually hurt their business, despite the huge benefits it could bring to ecommerce and consumer communications.