9.

the following Article is inserted: ‘Article 6a Transparency and safeguard mechanisms for regulated data roaming services 1. Home providers shall ensure that their roaming customers, both before and after the conclusion of a contract, are kept adequately informed of the charges which apply to their use of regulated data roaming services, in ways which facilitate customers' understanding of the financial consequences of such use and permit them to monitor and control their expenditure on regulated data roaming services in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3. Where appropriate, home providers shall inform their customers, before the conclusion of a contract and on a regular basis thereafter, of the risk of automatic and uncontrolled data roaming connection and download. Furthermore, home providers shall explain to their customers, in a clear and easily understandable manner, how to switch off these automatic data roaming connections in order to avoid uncontrolled consumption of data roaming services. 2. From 1 July 2009 at the latest, an automatic message from the home provider shall inform the roaming customer that he is roaming and provide basic personalised tariff information on the charges applicable to the provision of regulated data roaming services to that roaming customer in the Member State concerned, except where the customer has notified his home provider that he does not require this information. Such basic personalised tariff information shall be delivered to the roaming customer’s mobile telephone or other device, for example by an SMS message, an e-mail or a pop-up window on the computer, every time the roaming customer enters a Member State other than that of his home network and initiates for the first time a regulated data roaming service in that particular Member State. It shall be provided free of charge at the moment the roaming customer initiates a regulated data roaming service, by an appropriate means adapted to facilitate its receipt and easy comprehension. A customer who has notified his home provider that he does not require the automatic tariff information shall have the right at any time and free of charge to require the home provider to provide this service again. 3. By 1 March 2010, each home provider shall grant to all their roaming customers the opportunity to opt deliberately and free of charge for a facility which provides information on the accumulated consumption expressed in volume or in the currency in which the roaming customer is billed for regulated data roaming services and which guarantees that, without the customer’s explicit consent, the accumulated expenditure for regulated data roaming services over a specified period of use does not exceed a specified financial limit. To this end, the home provider shall make available one or more maximum financial limits for specified periods of use, provided that the customer is informed in advance of the corresponding volume amounts. One of these limits (the default financial limit) shall be close to, but not exceed, EUR 50 of outstanding charges per monthly billing period (excluding VAT). Alternatively, the home provider may establish limits expressed in volume, provided that the customer is informed in advance of the corresponding financial amounts. One of these limits (the default volume limit) shall have a corresponding financial amount not exceeding EUR 50 of outstanding charges per monthly billing period (excluding VAT). In addition, the home provider may offer to its roaming customers other limits with different, that is, higher or lower, maximum monthly financial limits. By 1 July 2010, the default limit in the second and third subparagraphs shall be applicable to all customers who have not opted for another limit. Each home provider shall also ensure that an appropriate notification is sent to the roaming customer’s mobile telephone or other device, for example by an SMS message, an e-mail or a pop-up window on the computer, when the data roaming services have reached 80 % of the agreed financial or volume limit. Customers shall have the right to require their operators to stop sending such notifications and shall have the right at any time and free of charge to require the home provider to provide the service again. When this financial or volume limit would otherwise be exceeded, a notification shall be sent to the roaming customer’s mobile telephone or other device. This notification shall indicate the procedure to be followed if the customer wishes to continue provision of those services and the cost associated with each additional unit to be consumed. If the roaming customer does not respond as prompted in the notification received, the home provider shall immediately cease to provide and to charge the roaming customer for regulated data roaming services, unless and until the roaming customer requests the continued or renewed provision of those services. From 1 November 2010, whenever a roaming customer requests to opt for or to remove a “financial or volume limit” facility, the change must be made within one working day of receipt of the request, free of charge, and shall not entail conditions or restrictions pertaining to other elements of the subscription. 4. With effect from 1 July 2009: (a) the average wholesale charge that the operator of a visited network may levy from the operator of a roaming customer’s home network for the provision of regulated data roaming services by means of that visited network shall not exceed a safeguard limit of EUR 1,00 on 1 July 2009, EUR 0,80 on 1 July 2010 and EUR 0,50 on 1 July 2011 per megabyte of data transmitted. The application of this safeguard limit shall not lead to any distortion or restriction of competition in the wholesale data roaming market in accordance with Article 8(2)(b) of the Framework Directive; (b) this average wholesale charge shall apply between any pair of operators and shall be calculated over a twelve-month period or any such shorter period as may remain before the expiry of this Regulation; (c) the average wholesale charge referred to in point (a) shall be calculated by dividing the total wholesale revenue received by the operator of the visited network from each operator of a home network for the provision of regulated data roaming services in the relevant period by the total number of megabytes of data actually consumed by the provision of those services within that period, aggregated on a per kilobyte basis.’;