12 December, 2022

GSMA-ETNO input to BEREC’s opinion on the Commission Implementing Regulation on the Fair Use Policy and Sustainability of the Roaming Regulation

GSMA and ETNO welcome the opportunity to provide comments to BEREC’s opinion on the functioning of the Commission Implementing Regulation on the Fair Use Policy (FUP) and Sustainability of the Roaming Regulation.

The possibility to apply FUP is a fundamental feature of “roam-like-at-home” regime, which enables the operators to prevent losses caused by users using roaming services for purposes other than periodic travel.

This element of the roaming service conditions will become even more crucial in a M2M scenario, where FUP allows operators to prevent massive use of their M2M solution abroad, which would open up the doors for harmful arbitrage.

In the view of the GSMA and ETNO, the Fair use policy provisions not only need to be maintained but would benefit from improvements and simplification due to the current high complexity of the existing control mechanism.

In our view, the Regulation should be defined in a way where any controls are transparent and easy to understand for customers, easy to implement and track for network operators, and based on cost-efficient solutions. We therefore continue to believe that when reviewing the Implementing Regulation, the Fair use policy provisions should be changed concerning open data bundles, limits on voice/SMS, simplification of 4-month window rule, and proof of normal residence or stable links.

Fair use rules that foresee the (ex post) monitoring of roaming vs domestic presence and traffic are extremely costly and complex to implement. Therefore, in some cases, operators have decided not to use this tool at all.

The (ex-ante) setting of a fair use limit on open data bundles also present challenges e.g., it:, (i) does not protect operators from providing the service below cost, and (ii) will be watered down in the event of a further reduction of wholesale caps.

For further questions, please contact Maarit Palovirta, Senior Director Regulatory Affairs, ETNO (palovirta@etno.eu) or Xhoana Shehu, Policy Manager, ETNO (shehu@etno.eu) and Lotte Abildgaard (labildgaard@gsma.com), Director Public Policy, GSMA.