1. Domestic providers shall implement the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services as provided for in Article 4 so that customers can use domestic mobile communication services and separate regulated roaming services. Domestic providers shall meet all reasonable requests for access to facilities and related support services relevant for the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services. Access to those facilities and support services that are necessary for the separate sale of regulated roaming services, including user authentication services, shall be free of charge and shall not entail any direct charges to customers.
2. In order to ensure consistent and simultaneous implementation across the Union of the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services, the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts and after having consulted BEREC, adopt, by 31 December 2012, detailed rules on the information obligations laid down in Article 4(4) and on a technical solution for the implementation of the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 6(2), and shall apply from 1 July 2014.
3. The technical solution to implement the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services shall meet the following criteria:
(a)
consumer friendliness, in particular allowing consumers to easily and quickly switch to an alternative roaming provider while keeping their existing mobile phone number and while using the same mobile device;
(b)
ability to serve all categories of consumer demand on competitive terms, including intensive usage of data services;
(c)
ability to effectively foster competition, taking also into account the scope for operators to exploit their infrastructure assets or commercial arrangements;
(d)
cost-effectiveness, taking into account the division of costs between domestic providers and alternative roaming providers;
(e)
ability to give effect to the obligations referred to in Article 4(1) in an efficient manner;
(f)
allowing a maximum degree of interoperability;
(g)
user friendliness, in particular in respect of the customers' technical handling of the mobile device when changing networks;
(h)
ensuring that roaming by Union customers in third countries or by third country customers in the Union is not impeded;
(i)
ensuring that the rules on protection of privacy, personal data, security and integrity of networks and transparency required by the Framework Directive and the Specific Directives are respected;
(j)
taking into account the promotion by national regulatory authorities of the ability of end users to access and distribute information or run applications and services of their choice, in accordance with point (g) of Article 8(4) of the Framework Directive;
(k)
ensuring that providers apply equivalent conditions in equivalent circumstances.
4. The technical solution may combine one or several technical modalities for the purposes of meeting the criteria set out in paragraph 3.
5. If necessary, the Commission shall give a mandate to a European standardisation body for the adaptation of the relevant standards that are necessary for the harmonised implementation of the separate sale of regulated retail roaming services.
6. Paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article shall apply from 1 July 2014.