Roaming charges scrapped from 2017

MOBILE phone ‘roaming’ charges will be abolished in the EU as of June 15, 2017.

This means that, with minor provisos, people will be able to use their mobiles in other EU states without surcharges compared to the usual tariffs they pay at home – whether for making or receiving calls, texts or using the internet.

It had originally been hoped to bring in the measure at the end of 2015 but the 2017 date has been agreed on as a compromise. Details are being formalised by the European Commission and are then expected to be signed off by the EU Parliament and Council so they pass into law.

The right to cheap calls on the continent could, therefore, be among the rights that British residents might lose, should the country leave the EU.

Before roaming charges are scrapped completely, they will be lowered as of April next year, with operators only being allowed to charge up to €0.05 extra per minute of call made, €0.02 per text message and €0.05 (plus VAT) per megabyte of data sent.

This is about 75% cheaper than current roaming charge caps and follows previous EU measures to reduce roaming costs which have fallen by 80% overall since 2007.

While the plan is ultimately to scrap the charges, it is expected that there will be a surcharge if you make significantly more use of your phone abroad than you usually do at home.

Commentators also believe the final rules will discourage people from, for example, buying a SIM from a cheaper operator in another country to use in one’s own country instead of a national operator’s one.

Also announced are plans, from April 30, 2016, for new “internet neutrality” laws in the EU states, meaning that no (legal) content will be unfairly blocked or slowed by internet providers – all sites in the EU will have to be equally accessible.

However providers will still be able to offer certain specialised services of higher quality, such as internet television, as long as these do not detract from the overall quality of ordinary internet access.

In practice this means, for example, that start-up websites will not be slowed down compared to big companies and no services will be slowed because firms have not paid an extra fee to providers.

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