EU ends mobile roaming charges from 2017

[webfact]

EU ends mobile roaming charges from 2017

BRUSSELS: -- Data roaming charges for mobile phones in EU countries are to become a thing of the past from mid-June 2017.

The European Parliament has given final approval for a plan to ban extra charges being imposed on consumers when they travel abroad within the EU.

665 MEPs voted in favour of the deal.

Roaming charges are currently added by mobile operators for calls (up to a maximum of 0.19 euros/min), texts (0.06 euros) and internet browsing (0.20 euros/MB) when users are abroad.

An interim period has been agreed from next April when roaming should become 75 percent cheaper, according to the European Commission. The cap will be reduced to 0.05 euros/min for calls, 0.02 euros for texts, and 0.05 euros/MB.

From June 2017 EU mobile phone users will pay the same price throughout the union as in their home country.

However some details concerning a ceiling for charges for incoming vocal messages remain to be worked out – it’s hoped by the end of the year.

The aim of the ban on roaming charges is to prevent consumers picking up huge bills when travelling. In a number of cases they have run into hundreds of euros.

However there have been fears that mobile phone companies may try to get round the ban by raising prices in general.

Britain’s anti-European party UKIP opposed the plans, saying they would penalise people who did not travel.

However the fact the vote was passed has been hailed by pro-Europeans as an example of British influence succeeding in the EU.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-10-28

[NongKhaiKid]

Good News, especially for the migrants invading Europe as it will be cheaper for them to phone home with the ' come and join us ' message.

[Credo]

This won't help the migrants who are calling home, but it will help with calling those further down the line to let them know the best route to take.

It's good news that the roaming charges are going down as the borders are being erected.

[phitsanulokjohn]

After years of the phone companies creaming it off,it's very nice of them to implement a plan that should've been in place from the start.

[bkk_mike]

Some of the carriers (three for instance) already don't charge extra when you're travelling in other countries where they operate (including the US, not just the EU).

But with no roaming charge at all, will people retiring to Spain or Cyprus do things like take their home country mobile contract with them, so that they can phone home (and be called) using their included call allowances each month...

[ozyjon]

So we should be dancing on rooftops,

BUT

Before you crack open the champagne bottles i'd like

to show a few lines from a local paper in the Algarve.

'' Many operators warned that the new roaming rules will benefit northern

European countries and the southern countries such as Portugal, which

gets more tourists than the north, could suffer constraints on the network

unless home operators make new investment in capacity.

Fátima Barros, the president of Anacom, today warned that the cost of

the increased use of networks in the domestic market by foreign customers

will end up being passed on to the domestic customer, which was hardly the intention.''

In other words,, too many people flapping their gums about nothing,,, (talking)

bandwidth too narrow, congestion, poor service, sensible solution, improve

infrastructure, Portuguese solution,, the cost will end up being passed on to the

domestic customer. Welcome to Portugal / Thailand,, same same.