Fixed and mobile telephone subscribers will be able to change operators within one working day and access freephone numbers from abroad under EU proposals to create a single market in telecommunications.
The proposals will also give consumers the right to transparent and comparable price information, better phone accessibility for users with disabilities and an improved emergency phone service, EU Commission officials told journalists in Dublin yesterday.
The reform package will also promote competition between telecoms operators as well as assisting the spread of broadband in member states, according to Linda Mauperon, a member of EU telecommunication commissioner Vivianne Reding's cabinet.
Ms Mauperon said telecoms companies which encounter a security problem will have to inform consumers when their personal data has been compromised, and stronger legal measures against spam are envisaged. The commission plans to exploit the bandwidth released when traditional analogue television is replaced with digital television in 2012 by promoting wireless broadband, mobile multimedia services and other new technologies, she said. However, Ms Mauperon admitted the proposals do not deal with the issue of roaming charges imposed for text messages or data communications between different member states.
She said Ms Reding had warned the telecoms operators they needed to reduce roaming charges for these services. The proposals must first go to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament before being approved, probably by the end of next year. They are unlikely to be transposed into Irish law before 2010 at the earliest.