EU to abolish roaming charges in 2017 update

The European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council have reached an agreement on the abolition of roaming charges. This will take place in June 2017. From April next year, the maximum roaming rate for MBs has been set at 5 euro cents.

The agreement is reported by Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. He speaks of a breakthrough. As of April 2016, the roaming rates will be reduced to 5 euro cents per minute for calls, 2 euro cents for text messages and 5 euro cents per MB for data.

The preliminary compromise puts an end to years of negotiations to abolish roaming charges. The European Commission and the European Parliament wanted to abolish roaming as soon as possible, but the member states thought this was going too far and suggested alternatives.

In April, member states proposed that European citizens should be able to take advantage of a low rate for cross-border telephone use for at least one week per calendar year. They should then be able to call across the border for at least five minutes a day and consume at least 10MB of data at no extra cost. The European Commission and the European Parliament saw nothing in that proposal.

Before that, it was already clear that the Member States only wanted to abolish in 2018, while from 2016 users would be allowed to roam up to a maximum of 5MB per day from their own bundle. The European Parliament initially wanted an end to roaming charges by the end of 2015. The provisional compromise that has now been reached therefore sets that date to June 2017.

Update, 9:05: Former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes tells BNR Nieuwsradio that she is disappointed in the agreement. “It is coming much too late, we have promised European citizens to abolish roaming charges sooner. The fact that it is taking so long is mainly due to large parties in the industry, the telcos, who are making huge profits from this.” Kroes says that those telecom providers had long realized that roaming costs would be a thing of the past. “That’s what they said to me in a ‘bilateral’, ‘we know it’s old-fashioned, but we’re going to fight for it until the last minute’. That’s why it took so long for this agreement to be concluded.”