European Union strikes deal to end roaming charges for all residents across Europe from June 2017

After over a decade of taking steps to reduce roaming charges for European Union residents travelling across Europe, the European Commission has struck a deal to end roaming charges from June 2017. In Europe, there are agreements between operators to pay wholesale roaming charges for subscribers of one operator who use the services of another operator in another country. The European Union managed to negotiate caps on wholesale roaming prices, the final piece needed to end roaming charges in Europe.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market , said, “This was the last piece of the puzzle. As of 15 June, Europeans will be able to travel in the EU without roaming charges. We have also made sure that operators can continue competing to provide the most attractive offers to their home markets. Today, we deliver on our promise. I warmly thank the European Parliament rapporteur Miapetra Kumpula-Natri and all the negotiators from the European Parliament as well as the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU and all those involved in achieving this milestone. Their efforts made it happen”

There are checks in place to prevent abuse of a service. Users will be tracked over a period of at least four months. Practices that are not allowed include spending an inordinate amount of time in another country, reselling SIM cards purchased from one country in another, using a SIM card exclusively for roaming purposes, subscribing to multiple SIM cards and using them sequentially while roaming. Travelers can buy local SIM cards in other countries, but not use those SIM cards for roaming purposes.

The European Parliament and Council must still vote on the agreement to approve the wholesale roaming prices, but the negotiations were the difficult part and the voting is expected to be just a formality. European citizens will automatically be able to avail free roaming across Europe, without the need for additional registrations. The need to limit roaming charges was perceived as the wholesale charges affect the domestic bills for consumers. There is a clause to temporarily exempt operators from the program, if the wholesale roaming charges stipulated by the EU lead to an increase in prices for domestic users.

In 2007, EU introduced the “Eurotariff”, a cap on how much EU residents paid for roaming. In 2013, EU started the legal process of making the entire continent a single, competitive telecom market. In 2015, the EU voted on a proposal to end roaming charges for consumers, and a cap on wholesale roaming prices was proposed in 2016. Over the course of 2016, the specifics of the mechanisms were tweaked to prevent abuse. Since 2007, SMS and call charges while roaming have dropped by 92 percent, and data charges while roaming have dropped by 96 percent in the EU. Getting rid of roaming charges entirely is the logical next step.