There will be a reduction in charges from April 30, 2016 when roaming surcharges must not exceed 5c per minute for calls, 2 cent for text messages or 5 cent per megabyte of mobile data.
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The change means mobile users within the European Union will be charged the same as they would at home.
The move – which will affect Sweden and all other 28 EU members – comes after the European Parliament finally gave the green light to a ban on roaming charges in a vote on Tuesday.
There have been a number of cases when mobile users have been landed with bills for hundreds of euros or pounds.
The charges are usually added by mobile operators when users are travelling overseas and generally include increased tariffs on calls, text and internet usage.
Monique Goyens, head of the European Consumer Organisation, said that while “access to the open Internet is now a legal right for all EU consumers … deficiencies remain”. The fall in roaming revenue for operators is sharpening their focus on new areas such as machine-to-machine connections and vertical segments. But the telcos have argued that charging websites fees would be fair since delivering a lot of data is costly for the provider. And they will already pay less from April 2016.
The abolishment of roaming charges was not met with universal approval. A few concerned that lower prices for jet-setters will mean higher domestic prices.
Nasty surprises on your bills when you return from holidays or professional travels will soon be nothing more than a bad memory as roaming charges are to be axed in Europe from June 2017.
Meanwhile, the European Telecommunications and Network Operators’ Association, which represents industry interests, warned that the new rules must not distort national markets or prevent companies from recovering their costs.
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“Workers holidays are linked to the European Union, maternity leave is linked to the European Union, equal pay – there are so many different things that every day, every British person is using”. “But it is coming”.
