After more than a decade of promises the European Union has finally reached an agreement to end roaming charges across its 28 member States as of June 2017.
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The agreement will end the frustration of EU citizens on holiday or business who face steep charges for using their phones for calls and Internet browsing when in the bloc but outside their home country.
Representatives for Latvia, which presently holds the rotating EU presidency, said: “Under the agreement, roaming surcharges in the European Union will be abolished as of June 15th, 2017″.
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) has announced that roaming charges will be scrapped in Europe on 15 June 2017 – unless it changes its mind again.
On net neutrality, meanwhile, negotiators also carved out some exceptions, such as in case of a cyberattack or for automated communications from emergency care services. Known as “net neutrality,” these rules will make sure that all internet traffic is treated equally across all internet service providers. 05 euros per minute in a call, .02 euros per text message and. “They have been heard”.
“Plans to abolish roaming charges by mid-2017 are good news for mobile users across the continent, and signifies a natural end-point to gradual price reductions enforced by the EU since 2007”, said Adrian Baschnonga, lead telecoms analyst at EY. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us to create a Digital Single Market,” said Andrus Ansip (pictured), commission vice-president for the digital single market. Both companies have warned that the ban on roaming charges would dampen their incentive to invest in mobile and broadband infrastructure.
Top EU top digital affairs official Guenther Oettinger welcomed the move, saying that cuts to roaming charges and net neutrality are “essential for consumers and businesses”.
The Commission also said that the cost of data roaming – when a mobile user utilises another local network to access the internet while still being billed by their normal provider – has dropped by 91% since 2007.
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A fair use policy can still be adopted by networks, meaning it’ll be impossible to register and pay for a phone in a country where you do not live, then use it at home to potentially save money.
