The 13th Roaming Expert Working Group Meeting (REWG) took place in Prague, Czech Republic on 29-30 April 2024.
Considering that the last (12th) REWG meeting was organized in October 2021, the organization of the 13th REWG meeting not only allowed the EWG to meet and discuss the important topics of common interest e.g. analysis of the voice call termination market, calculation of the termination rates and national consultation of RRA but will also give the members of the EWG the chance to have a face-to-face meeting with the newly elected leadership of the group from Armenia, Germany and Moldova.
One of the main aims of the meeting was to discuss the State-of-play of the Regional Roaming Agreement (RRA), during which EU4Digital presented the state-of-play of the RRA, confirming that the latest agreed version of the text is version 38. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova country representatives reflected on the current position regarding signing the RRA:
- Armenia country representatives reconfirmed their readiness to sign RRA, awaiting Ukraine’s confirmation to sign;
- Azerbaijan country representatives reconfirmed their readiness to sign RRA, awaiting Ukraine’s confirmation to sign;
- Georgia country representatives are awaiting Ukraine’s confirmation to sign; after confirmation from Ukraine is received, Georgia country representatives will initiate formal internal review procedures. These processes are expected to take 1-2 months, after which Georgia will be ready to sign the RRA. Also, Georgia country representatives expressed reservations about joining the agreement in case not all Eastern partner countries are signing the RRA;
- Moldova country representatives stated their readiness to sign the RRA with reservations in case Ukraine does not join the agreement.
Overall, it was concluded, that to advance with signing the RRA a confirmation from Ukraine regarding the RRA is needed. Thus, it was agreed to organise additional meetings as soon as there are developments from the Ukraine side in terms of the RRA.
Bilateral roaming arrangement between EU and Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova:
- EU4Digital presented the latest updates on the bilateral roaming track between the EU and Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova;
- Ukraine: stakeholders arecurrently working on draft international roaming legislation aiming to approximate with the EU acquis;
- Georgia: draft legislation documents for approximation to the EU roaming regulatory framework are prepared by Georgian authorities. EU4Digital has recently launched an activity to review the draft legislation.
Moldova: EU4Digital is currently supporting local stakeholders in drafting electronic communications legislation, incl. provision on international roaming, to approximate Moldova’s national legislation with the EU acquis.
Voice call termination market analysis:
- EU4Digital presented the template for report on wholesale voice termination market analysis;
As a next step, REWG leadership will share the detailed voice call termination market analysis report template prepared by EU4Digital for the Eastern partner countries review. In parallel, the Eastern partner countries shall collect the data necessary for the market analysis.
