Roaming: EU regulation of roaming prices delays the reduction of other mobile prices

[Focus] The pace of decreasing mobile and stationary phone call prices in Bulgaria could face a delay because of the drop in roaming revenues. This is what Nikolay Kichev, head of M-Tel’s ‘Regulations and relations with operators’ direction said.
The European Parliament (EP) decided Wednesday that as of early July this year, outgoing calls should costs EUR 0.43/min at the most and the caps for incoming calls should be EUR 0.19/min.

Bulgaria’s call costs stand at EUR 0.06/min against the EU average of EUR 0.14/min. Bulgaria ranks 2nd in the list of EU Member States with the cheapest calls in the club, right after Cyprus, which has serious roaming revenues. In Kichev’s words that’s the reason for the series of futile tenders for fourth and fifth GSM network operators. Investors are also reluctant to pour money in Bulgaria because of the slim annual profits here – EUR 110 (BGN 220) per subscriber against an EU average of EUR 284.49.

Cheaper roaming delays the slump in call prices