Date set for roaming fees to be scrapped across Europe
Under the changes, mobile phone users will pay the same charges to make calls, send text messages and use data no matter where they are travelling in the EU.
Following negotiations at the European Parliament and Council, agreement has also been reached on so-called net neutrality rules, which will see internet providers banned from slowing down or blocking access to certain content, services or applications.
These measures will be completed by an ambitious overhaul of EU telecoms rules in 2016.
Commission vice-president for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, said the announcement was something EU consumers had been demanding for a long time.
“Europeans have been calling and waiting for the end of roaming charges as well as for net neutrality rules,” said Mr Ansip. “They have been heard. We still have a lot of work ahead of us to create a digital single market. Our plans to make it happen were fully endorsed by heads of state and government last week, and we should move faster than ever on this.”
However, director general of the European Consumer Organisation, Monique Goyens, said there was “devil in the detail” of the deal.
“We cannot call it the end of roaming when there are in-built exceptions to allow providers to charge consumers when they go abroad if they fear it’s too costly,” said Ms Goyens. “It is critical that the EU and national governments observe the deadline and finally ban roaming.”
Commission welcomes agreement to end #roaming charges & to guarantee an open Internet http://t.co/PehybjIiUu pic.twitter.com/WPf8dfwWzu
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) June 30, 2015
Ms Goyens also sounded a note of caution in relation to net neutrality.
“A robust net neutrality law involves protections against undue management of traffic and discriminatory commercial practices,” she said. “What Europe is essentially saying here is that all internet data is born equal, but some is more equal than others. We applaud the new onus on internet service providers to treat traffic equally, but safeguards against the impact of ‘specialised services’ are not strong enough.”
Dublin MEP Brian Hayes said the abolition of the charges was good news for consumers in Ireland and across the wider EU.
“On average, we in Ireland use our mobile phone more than any other EU member state,” said Mr Hayes. “From April 2016, a phasing-out of roaming charges will commence. This transitional period will mean roaming charges will be four times lower than is the case today. ”
MEP South Seán Kelly said the decision would bring an end to “roaming rip-off” charges for already hard-pressed consumers.
“We operate in a single market in Europe,” he said. “It is nonsensical and a total abuse of power over consumers that they were subjected to outrageous roaming charges when travelling in another EU country. Thankfully, the Parliament already succeeded in securing a deal to lower the tariffs in the interim period so the bills have been drastically reduced in the meantime.”
