Published in Mobiles

Global Roaming charges banned

by on01 July 2015


By mid-2017

The Latvian presidency of the EU has reached a provisional deal with the European Parliament on new rules to end mobile phone roaming fees by mid-2017

Under the agreement, roaming surcharges in the European Union will be abolished as of 15 June.

Roaming providers will be able to apply a 'fair use policy' to prevent abusive use of roaming. This would include using roaming services for purposes other than periodic travel.

In otherwords you can't use your British Vodaphone SIM in Italy for years because the tariff is cheaper in the UK.  Of course if the UK leaves the EU, then its mobile operators can do what they like and charge what they want.

Roaming fees will already go down on 30 April 2016, when the current retail caps will be replaced by a maximum surcharge of €0.05 per minute for calls, €0.02 for SMSs and €0.05 per megabyte for data.

Anrijs Mat?ss, the Latvian Minister for Transport said that this was a great success for the European Union and the Latvian presidency.

"The Latvian presidency has put a lot of effort into finalising the Telecom Single Market proposal - we revived the proposal from scratch and reached agreement. This would not have been possible without the commitment and constructive approach of the member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission".

It is still a way off yet.

The presidency will debrief member states' ambassadors on the outcome of the trilogue at the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) on 30 June.


The agreed text will be presented for confirmation by member states under the Luxembourg presidency.

Last modified on 01 July 2015
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