By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom (ETR:DTEGn), Orange, Telefonica (BME:TEF), Telecom Italia (BIT:TLIT) and other operators can continue to charge users for intra-EU calls until 2028 under a provisional deal agreed by EU countries and lawmakers on Tuesday.
European Union lawmakers last year proposed scrapping charges for calls between EU countries which are currently capped at 19 euro cents per minute for calls and 6 cents per text message. The caps, set out under EU rules in 2019, expire in May.
The telecoms industry had criticised the plan, saying that scrapping the charges could cost them billions of euros in revenue while they were investing heavily in rolling out 5G services across the bloc.
A report commissioned by telecoms group ETNO, which counts the major players amongst its members, said abolishing the call charges could lead to a revenue loss of at least 2.1 billion euros ($2.25 billion) for operators in the five-year period to 2029.
"The alignment of domestic and intra-EU calls will take effect as of 2029. Meanwhile the current caps will continue to apply," lawmaker MEP Alin Mituta said in a statement.
The legislators also agreed to a proposed European Commission plan to cut red tape and costs aimed at helping operators roll out 5G across the bloc to enable 75% of EU companies to use cloud infrastructure or artificial intelligence technology by 2030.
The Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) sets out simpler and clearer procedures for granting infrastructure permits, including a "tacit approval" principle where permission to install infrastructure would be granted if the administrative authority does not respond within a four month period.
The new legislation also clarifies factors for calculating fair and reasonable conditions for access to infrastructure.
($1 = 0.9313 euros)