An Analysis of the Impact on Welfare deriving from the New European Regulation of International Roaming

The new EU regulation on international mobile roaming, which has recently come into force, and the introduction of the ‘Eurotariff’ have both had an impact on the welfare of consumers as well as on producer surplus. The aim of this paper is to analyse such effects at a national level in the 27 EU States. In particular this study enables the variation in welfare to be calculated according to the type of international call (Calls Home, Local Calls, or Received Calls) and to the market segment (Business or Residential). The paper also examines the welfare trend over the initial three year period after the regulation is put into force. The analysis is carried out to identify which nations will benefit most from the intervention of the European Community, and also to evaluate the relationship in each individual nation between the level of market maturity and an increase in the level of welfare.