Competition at Last? An Economic Analysis of Current Mobile Data Roaming Regulations in Europe

The mobile data roaming market in the European Union is characterized by a lack of competition which is one of the main reasons for wholesale and retail prices being well above cost-based prices. In 2012, the European Commission has enacted new regulatory measures such as allowing for more players competing in the wholesale data roaming market and forcing mobile network operators to unbundle roaming services from domestic offers by 2014. Moreover, the European Commission recently proposed the elimination of roaming charges by 2016. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether these measures will ultimately result in more competition and, thus, in increased social welfare. Drawing on existing research from IS, telecommunications and regulation domains, we propose the development of an analytical model to evaluate the economic implications of these regulatory measures.