The UK's telecoms regulator, Ofcom has outlined new plans to deal with issues of "bill shock" from roaming customers.
It follows an extensive review into the causes of 'bill shock' in the communications sector, which identified that mobile contract customers were the most likely to be affected by this problem. Research conducted as part of the review revealed that as many as 1.4 million mobile phone contract customers may have been affected by 'bill shock' in the past six months.
Ofcom will now work with the mobile industry on a series of measures to address the main issues identified by the review. If these do not sufficiently reduce consumer harm, Ofcom said that it may consider mandatory options to tackle the problem.
Extending EU Roaming Regulation
The EU Roaming Regulation requires all mobile operators to apply a cut-off limit once a consumer's mobile internet bill reaches EUR 50 per month, while travelling in the European Union. They must also send alerts to consumers when they reach 80 and 100 percent of their limit.
Ofcom is supporting EU regulators' group BEREC's proposals to extend this measure so that European consumers would enjoy this protection worldwide. If the EU decides not to extend the existing protection, and if all providers do not agreed to introduce financial caps and alerts voluntarily, Ofcom will consider whether to consult on intervening to protect consumers.
BEREC has also announced today that it expects wholesale data roaming costs to fall significantly by 2014, to below 5 eurocents per MB of data, compared with the current price of around 25 eurocents. Retail charges are currently around 1 Euro per MB of data.
Ofcom supports proposals to enforce steep price reductions at both wholesale and retail levels which will allow savings in wholesale costs to be passed on to consumers.
Encouraging providers to set financial caps
Ofcom has written to the mobile providers calling on them to do more to develop and promote 'opt-in' measures, such as tariffs that allow consumers to set their own financial caps or receive alerts about usage. Ofcom's consumer guide sets out the financial caps and alerts (domestic and when roaming), and tools to monitor usage provided by each operator.
Ofcom will also carry out further consumer research and will consider whether financial caps and alerts that consumers would need to 'opt-out' of would be appropriate.
Exploring introduction of maximum liability limits
Ofcom has engaged with mobile providers on the issue of high bills resulting from lost or stolen phones, including how providers monitor unusual usage and fraudulent activity.
Currently, if a consumer's phone is stolen and thieves run up a huge bill then the consumer can be liable for the full amount, which may run into thousands of pounds.
Ofcom now intends to work with providers to explore the feasibility of limiting the amount consumers would be liable for if their phone was stolen. Ofcom is also urging mobile providers to better advertise steps that consumers can take to protect themselves, such as locking their handsets.
