EU commissioner denies shelving proposals to cut the cost of data roaming and calls

Neelie Kroes, vice president of the EU commission, has denied dropping proposals to cut the wholesale cost of data and voice roaming within the EU, a suggestion that appeared in a Reuters article earlier in the day.

Wholesale cost reduction proposals that had previously been a part of Kroes’ plan to create a single telecom market in her draft proposals due to be unveiled on September are now absent, the article said. The wholesale cost of data transit is the amount that operators can charge each other for carrying rival networks’ data across their network.

In response to the report, Ryan Heath, Kroes’ spokesman said “It has been our intention since 2010 to eliminate the premiums associated with roaming and that remains our intention”.

*This article has been updated to reflect information provided by Kroes’ spokesman Ryan Heath.

➤ Reuters

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