EU plans raft of changes to abolish roaming fees

The EU is aiming to finally kill off roaming charges and make the cost of phone calls, downloads, texts, and internet searches on mobile devices the same as at home when travelling around Europe.

But while digital chief Neelie Kroes has set the date — Jul 2016 — to abolish the borders, much of the telecoms industry is fighting against the move.

European Commissioners spent hours arguing over the details at their weekly meeting yesterday, with many warning that Ms Kroes’s plans could have unexpected consequences for consumers.

The full and final package of plans is expected to be released this week.

Ms Kroes is planning a stick and carrot approach which she hopes will finally create a single telecoms market in the EU — similar to that in the US.

Companies will be forced to offer their customers ‘roam like at home’ packages where they will pay no more than they do at home for using their phones — this is being described by the commission as the ‘carrot’, since the companies would be free of new rules and regulations.

One British company has recently introduced such a package, allowing customers to make calls to and from a list of EU countries for the same cost as at home.

Alternatively, companies will be subject to the ‘stick’ which would allow customers to choose whichever company is offering the best deal in the country they are visiting — without having to buy a new SIM card or change number. This would deprive the domestic provider of potential revenue.

The companies can begin introducing these changes from July next year to have them fully operational by Jul 2016, the leaked commission draft says.

The first of the charges to be axed will be the extra money on incoming calls for travellers. This must be abolished by next July.

Calls on fixed phone lines will also come under the new regime with calls to other EU countries costing no more than long-distance calls within a country.

Ms Kroes acknowledges that this will affect profits of the huge telecoms companies, but argues that travellers will no longer be afraid to use their phones while abroad and all the extra business will more than compensate for the initial costs.

While costs have plummeted by about 80% since the commission first forced companies to cut their roaming charges in 2008, the goal is to create a single telecoms space throughout the EU.

This includes a raft of proposals such as guaranteeing net neutrality by preventing operators blocking services offered by rivals, encouraging more widespread use of 4G that would see far faster downloads, and more oversight of the 28 national regulators. Early plans to establish a single EU regulator have been shelved.