Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The provision of telecommunications network services, including Skype services, is a matter in the first instance, for private sector service providers operating in a liberalised market regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). I am advised by ComReg that they have just recently received a small number of consumer complaints in respect of the blocking of Skype and are currently investigating the matter.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The telecommunications market in Ireland, including the provision of mobile telephone services, is a fully liberalised market regulated by the independent market regulator, the Commission for Communications Regulation in accordance with the provisions of the Communications Regulation Act 2002, as amended. In the case of roaming charges, ComReg’s market regulation is also exercised in accordance with applicable provisions of EU Roaming Regulations.

The current EU Roaming Regulation “(EU) No 531/2012 of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks”, which commenced on 1st July last, is the third in a series of such EU Regulations, first introduced in 2007. The purpose of these EU Regulations is to provide increasing levels of consumer protection to customers in all EU member states when using mobile roaming services. The reductions in the maximum permitted retail prices for roaming services within the EU required by these Regulations are summarised in the following table (excluding VAT). The Regulations impose binding maximum permitted retail prices but service providers are free to charge lower prices.

The current EU Roaming Regulation also obliges mobile service providers to inform customers of roaming charges and to implement a minimum set of customer protection measures which include the following.

(i) Service provider must advise customers by SMS, on each occasion a customer moves to a roaming service, of the costs of roaming in the EU, including the cost of calls made and received, the cost of sending an SMS/MMS, the cost per Megabyte (MB) of data and provide a freephone number to customers to deal with any additional customer queries.

(ii) In the case of customers who data roam, service providers must automatically impose a data cap of €50 (excluding VAT) in any month in which a customer roams. Customers must be advised when 80% of the data usage cap is reached and at 100% of the data usage cap the service should cease. Customers can then choose to continue to data roam incurring additional charges above the default cap if they wish. The data cap requirement is mandatory within the EU. In the case of customers roaming outside the EU, the data usage alert is required where possible. If the visited network outside the EU area cannot provide a warning alert, the customer should receive an SMS advising that the operator cannot apply the data usage alert in that country.

Any customer who has been charged in excess of the permitted roaming rates or who has incurred significant roaming charges without receiving the customer information required by the EU Regulation should contact ComReg to pursue the matter further. ComReg can be contacted at consumerline@comreg.ie, by phone at (01) 804 9668 or 1890 229668 or at Block DEF, Abbey Court, Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.