According to EU roaming news brought by newswire Reuters, European Commissioner Neelie Kroes has scrapped a draft proposal to cut wholesale roaming fees by as much as 90%. The plan which affects the prices telecom carriers pay each other to get access to each other’s networks, was a key element of her efforts to create a single market for telecom services in the EU.
In an earlier draft of her proposals seen by Reuters, Kroes proposed a cap of 3 cents per voice minute from July, 2014 to June 2022, a 70 percent reduction from the 10 cent cap which came into effect in July this year. She also wanted to slash the wholesale cap for data to 1.5 cents per MB from the current limit of 15 cents. Kroes' latest draft plan seen by Reuters does not mention the issue at all.
A spokesman for Neelie Kroes said: "We've made several technical improvements over the summer that will help us reach our ongoing objective of a real telecoms single market." Kroes will unveil her final proposals on September 10. She needs approval from the 28 EU members countries and the European Parliament before they can be made into law. In earlier
statements, Neelie Kroes was aiming to get her proposal voted into law before the EP elections next year.
Most impacted by this news is Mobistar, which is quasi 100% mobile (certainly after leaving the fixed business a couple of months ago). Belgacom's revenue base is exposed for 23-24% exposed to mobile service revenues, so impact less pronounced.
(19,26 USD, 0,10%) – (2,19 EUR, -4,46%) bid news:
The Foundation Preference Shares B has exercised its call option to subscribe for preference shares B in . As a consequence, currently 4,258,098,272 preference shares B are outstanding with the Foundation Preference Shares B . The Foundation paid 25% of the nominal value (being EUR 0.24 p.s.) on the preference shares B for the approx. 4.2bn shares. This boils down to approx. EUR 255m, for which there is secured funding with a consortium of banks. The foundation expressed that it came to its decision in order to safeguard the interests of and its stakeholders, as América Móvil announced its intention to make a public offer for all shares on 9 August 2013 without prior consultation with . This news follows the sweeting of the E-Plus bid, which saw its consideration increase from EUR 8.1bn to EUR 8.55bn and saw AMX change its stance towards in favour. The exercise of the call also follows the news op KPN's unions contending Slim's offer and wanting firm guarantees that KPN's strategy will be continued and that future employment will be safeguarded Note that the Foundation cannot hold on to the Pref shares permanently, but can only do so temporarily before redeeming them.