The ITRE Committee of the European Parliament has published a report examining the impact of Roam-Like-At-Home, one year after the implementation.
Background: The current roaming regulation, adopted in November 2015, resulted in Roam-Like-At-Home coming into force as of June 2017. The regulation also capped wholesale roaming prices.
What’s new? The ITRE Committee of the EU Parliament has assessed the impact of the Regulation in its first year. The report concludes that RLAH has clearly influenced growth in data traffic (+435% in Q3 2017 compared to Q3 2016, much higher than the growth experienced in previous years) and raises concerns over the competitiveness of the wholesale data roaming market. This is a significant problem for new B2B markets related to IoT.
What’s next? The report carries some recommendations, including a cost-based wholesale cap “in a short timeframe” and promoting open access to future 5G networks for all service providers. However, it is unlikely that there will be changes in the next few months, as EU institutions are finalising the proposal still open ahead of next May’s elections; and any initiative to legislate has to come from the European Commission.
