Vodafone customers may be offered cheaper "roaming tariffs" from April, when regulatory conditions that were put in place when the company bought German rival Mannesmann expire, the firm said yesterday.
The introduction of cheaper roaming would be a boost to Vodafone's 1.7 million Irish users who were promised seamless and more efficient European roaming when Vodafone bought Eircell in 2000.
Roaming tariffs are the charges mobile phone companies levy on their customers when they make or receive a call while travelling abroad. The high charges set by firms, including Vodafone Ireland, have been a constant irritant for consumers and are being investigated by the European Commission for evidence of collusion.
Mr Laurence McCauley, Vodafone Ireland's director of regulatory affairs, said yesterday the expiry of regulatory conditions laid down by the European Commission when Vodafone acquired Mannesmann in April 2000 should benefit consumers later this year.
"Under these conditions, Vodafone was forced to offer all mobile firms access to its networks on an equal basis... This meant there was no commercial benefit to us from offering cheaper roaming prices to our own subsidiaries.
"The Mannesmann undertakings are due to expire in April 2003. Vodafone will then be able to get into individual negotiations with companies in its own group," said Mr McCauley, who has been working on roaming issues at Vodafone group level in Europe.
The Mannesmann undertakings are a set of conditions laid down by the European Commission's competition directorate as the price for its approval of Vodafone's move to purchase the German firm.
They forced Vodafone to dispose of Orange and to allow its competitors roaming access to its own mobile phone network.
Vodafone had argued that the Commission's decision to force it to open its network to competitors for roaming effectively removed the commercial rationale for it to offer its own subsidiaries cheap roaming agreements.
But following the removal of the Mannesmann undertakings, it is likely to pursue individual deals with its subsidiaries that will bring down the cost of roaming for its users.
A reduction in roaming rates would be welcomed by Vodafone's Irish users, who often face expensive bills when they use their phones abroad.
Research conducted by The Irish Times shows some roaming tariffs charged by Irish mobile networks can cost as much as 30 times the price of calls made while in the Republic.
A move by Vodafone to reduce its roaming rates may also force other operators to seek ways to cut prices, according to O2 Ireland's director of strategy and business development, Mr John Gunnigan.
"The Vodafone initiative could make other European operators team up to offer better rates to meet its combined threat," he said. "This may work as a type of star alliance as seen in the airline industry."
