1. Building Blocks for International Mobile Roaming Strategic Guidelines
ITU/BDT Regional Economic and Financial Forum of Telecommunications/ICTs for Arab States
Muscat, Oman, 6-7 December 2016
Building Blocks for International Mobile Roaming Strategic Guidelines
Ms Carmen Prado-Wagner Regulatory and Market Environment Division
Telecommunication Development Bureau

2. Agenda
Setting the scene – International Mobile Roaming (IMR) issues today
General trends on IMR Pricing and regulation
ITU/BDT Director, Mr Brahima Sanou, LET’S ROAM THE WORLD Initiative
Building blocks for IMR Strategic Guidelines
Other BDT Regulatory Tools and information

3. Setting the scene
The issue of high IMR service prices at national, regional and international level is recognized as an increasingly important issue, for both voice and data services.
IMR incurs additional charges in its cost structure that often are not cost based;
Any IMR measures, by their nature, must be multi- country;
Action by National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) requires understanding the real costs wholesale and retail charges as well as IOTs (inter operator tariffs) information;
As IMR relies on inter-Operators negotiations, NRAs are not always informed;

4. In addition…
Insufficient attention on the part of consumers until they receive the bill-shock and difficulty to compare mobile roaming prices
Low demand-elasticity for IMR services (changing over time specially for data services)
Cross-border nature of the IMR service = potential double marginalization and possible double taxation

5. General trends on IMR pricing and regulatory issues

6. General trends on retail pricing
General trends on pricing are positive since prices at retail level seem to be decreasing in all regions for both voice and data.
Source: ITU Tariff Policies database, 2015

7. What about IMR Regulation….
Are countries regulating IMR retail prices?
Source: ITU Tariff Policies database, 2015

8. Measures taken by Operators to reduce the risk of bill shock
From 124 countries responses received, only 17 reported that operators have not taken any measure.

9. Top Measures applied by Operators
From 124 countries responses received, only 17 reported that operators have not taken any measure;
The most applied measures are:
Home operator sends text messages to inform his customers of their roaming tariffs when they arrive in another country.
Home operator sends alert SMS to the user informing that he/she is reaching the agreed roaming spending limit.
Suspending service when usage exceeds the spending limit fixed.

10. Despite these apparent price reductions, as well as the emergence of a range of alternative technologies and calling solutions, prices are still significantly different from costs for this service and are still high from a consumer’s perspective.

11. ITU/BDT Director, Mr Brahima Sanou LET’S ROAM THE WORLD initiative
ITU is a neutral platform actively working on IMR (research, recommendations, data collection, studies, development of tools…)
ITU can enhance dialogue with all stakeholders (e.g. IMR Round-Tables, consultation meetings)
Together all stakeholders - to develop building blocks for “IMR Strategic Guidelines”
Organization of the IMR Consultation Meeting September Regional Regulatory Associations (RA),Operator Associations and Consumer Associations actively participating

12. Elements for success
Commitment from all stakeholders to work together and move forward….
Global and universal approach – interconnect the global ecosystem with a regional integration and coordination
Concrete mandate - Political support and prioritization
Support from ITU
Data collection – information sharing
Clear deliverables and milestones for economic and consumer welfare
Harmonization
To build on ITU-D Reports and Discussions as well as on ITU-T Recommendation D-98 “Charging in International Mobile Roaming Service”, and subsequent new ITU-T D-97 on “Methodological principles for determining international mobile roaming rates”
Transparency
Taxation
New business models - Affordability
Borderless industry/borderless regulation strategy
Balance between Consumer protection and Operator revenues

13. GSR Discussion Papers … Study Group Questions
Economic and Financial Fora in all regions
Work with RAs
ITU-T Recommendation D-98 and D-97 on Roaming
ITU Guide for NRAs on International Mobile Roaming Cost analysis
ITU International Mobile Roaming Cost Analysis Tool

14. Let’s Roam the World: Proposed Roadmap
It is essential to open the IMR discussion to all stakeholders;
To make sure to use all available tools such as the ITU Guide for NRAs on International Mobile Roaming Cost analysis ITU International Mobile Roaming Cost Analysis Tool, the ITU-T Recommendation D-98 “Charging in International Mobile Roaming Service”, and subsequent new ITU-T D-97 on “Methodological principles for determining international mobile roaming rates”, research already developed by ITU, RAs and Regional and International organizations [available at the ITU IMR Portal];
Compare regional initiatives – identify common denominators for IMR gaps;
Draft the building blocks for IMR Strategic Guidelines by end of this year;
Organize a wider consultation meeting, and a session during GSR to present the results of the work done in the framework of this LET’S ROAM THE WORLD initiative;
A potential output on “IMR Strategic Guidelines” can be presented at the WTDC-2017 High Level Ministerial Round Table (October 2017)
Increase public awareness – using ITU, RAs, NRAs and Operators media channels.

15. IMR Strategic Guidelines - Draft Proposal
To draft building blocks for IMR Strategic Guidelines draw from recognized international best practices and from renowned publications, text and documents – as well as a collection of regional initiatives
Share to all stakeholders – via Regulator, Operator and Consumer Associations
The aim of this Draft Proposal is to provide a basis for discussion and to create a common understanding

16. Building blocks for IMR Strategic Guidelines
Inclusive dialogue and collaboration with market players [to stay in touch with market realities], with all stakeholders [across the sectors] and across countries and regions [borderless] is relevant as
we live in a world of borderless industries - need to define appropriate policies and strategies.
Academia
Affordable prices
Consumers
Consumers Protection
Stakeholders
NRAs
MNOs
IMR Competitive Market
Regional Initiatives
Bilateral negotiations
Dialogue & Collaboration
Regulators’ guidelines
MNO’s guidelines
Regional Associations

17. Other BDT Regulatory Tools and information

18. Data is the new oil: The Interconnection Rates Platform
Will showcase:
Mobile Termination Rates
Fixed termination Rates
Other wholesale rates
visualization tools and interactive dashboards to benchmark prices, showing:
regions, countries
population,
geographical situation,
penetration,
etc.
Available soon…

19. GSR 2017 Living in a World of Digital Opportunities
Bahamas July 2017
Living in a World of Digital Opportunities 19
5/13/2018

20. Thank You!

21. Are countries regulating IMR Wholesale prices?

22. Building Blocks for IMR Strategic Guidelines - Structure
The objective is to foster options in a common set of Guidelines that will benefit on the one hand consumers with lower prices and on the other hand operators with increased returns on their investments due to increase of traffic.
In this slide we can see the draft proposal.
The expected final output is to foster a common set of Strategic Guidelines that will benefit on the one hand consumers with lower prices and on the other hand operators with increased returns on their investments due to increase of traffic.
The Guidelines will be addressed to RAs, NRAs and MNO, and adapted to the different contexts.
For RAs, it is important to have a clear and concrete mandate to work in the context of IMR and that they can have the tools and resources to fulfill their mission to interconnect the global ecosystem.
Regulators face IMR Market and Competition issues as well as issues relating to consumer protection; they deal with bilateral and multilateral agreements as well as regional and international initiatives
Operators can use guidelines to address the market context and in relation to consumers.