roaming report.

The Commission has published an interim report on the state of development of roaming services within the European Union. While the Report states that implementation of the amending Roaming Regulation has gone smoothly and operators have complied with the new provisions so that consumers are benefiting from reductions in the prices for voice and SMS roaming services and from increased transparency, it considers that consumers are not yet enjoying fully the reductions seen at wholesale level for data and that competition in the roaming markets has not developed sufficiently and structural problems persist.

The Roaming Regulation, as amended, is valid until 30 June 2012. The Commission must produce its full review of the functioning of the Roaming Regulation by 30 June 2011. According to the Commission such review will analyse whether further regulation of roaming services will still be necessary, either in the form of price regulation or through some alternative long-term approach, or whether the Regulation should expire in 2012, leaving roaming services to market forces alone.