EU roaming rates to be scrapped in 2017
Mobile phone users will soon be able to pay the same price for phone calls and texts when they are anywhere in the EU as they pay at home.
The European Parliament and European Council have reached an agreement to end EU roaming charges from 15th June 2017. This means that a mobile phone user travelling within one of the 28 member countries will pay the same price that they pay in the UK when they make a call, send a text message or use data.
In addition, the cost of roaming is set to be capped from April 2016. Mobile phone providers will only be able to add a small charge to their current fees when users are making calls or sending texts while in the EU; for example, this top up will be just €0.02 (less than 1p) for each text and €0.05 for each MB of data.
When plans for scrapping roaming charges were first announced in April 2014, the date set for implementation was 17th December this year; however, the various member countries of the EU wanted a later date in place that would allow companies to apply the higher charges until the end of 2018. The new date of 2017 is a compromise following talks between the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission.
The roaming charges have already fallen a great deal when compared to costs in 2007 and the European Commission vice-president for the digital single market, Andrus Ansip, says that the voice of the European people has been heard.