The EU scrapped on Wednesday a 90-day limit to its landmark free mobile phone roaming policy, promising checks to curb abuse after the initial plan ran into fierce criticism.
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The latest plan means there will now no longer be a time limit on surcharge-free roaming when new rules come into force in June 2017.
If a person uses their phone a lot more overseas than at home, or if a SIM card is largely inactive at home, operators will be able to apply roaming surcharges, the Commission’s new plan proposes.
The move comes almost two weeks after the commission withdrew its original proposal on free roaming following widespread criticism over its plan to limit it to 90 days a year. They fear that once the new plan takes hold, people might buy cheap services or SIM cards in another European country, and then use them at home.
“We want to protect both sides”, Ansip said. If they aren’t somewhat similar to the way they use their phone at home, the carrier will be able to apply a small surcharge to their bill.
The Commission outlined a number of situations it would consider abusive: if subscribers’ domestic traffic is insignificant compared to their roaming traffic, if their SIM card is used mostly while roaming, or if they have a number of SIM cards that they use in turn while roaming.
The level of those surcharges is now being debated by the European Parliament and member states, with a final agreement expected early next year.
The idea is to ensure they do not abuse the system by buying a cheap SIM cars in one European Union country and using it permanently elsewhere. Europeans, millions of whom frequently cross often nearby borders, have been irritated by charges for making calls or using data overseas that seem far greater than any additional costs required to provide that service.
As a result, they responded angrily to the 90-day “fair use” limit, charging that Brussels had caved in to the powerful telecoms companies for whom roaming charges have always been a lucrative source of extra income. Yet EU data suggests that it costs little more for phone companies to connect such calls.
“After 10 years of tireless fight, roaming fees officially belong to the past”, she said.
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European telecoms’ lobby groups ETNO and GSMA said Wednesday they would thoroughly analyze the new proposal, and provide feedback before the draft would go to the EU’s 28 national regulators for negotiation.
