European Commission: 5MB limit when roaming is a joke

The Vice-President of the European Commission calls the current roaming proposal, whereby users can use up to 5MB per day of data at the rate of their own provider abroad, ‘a joke’. The Commission still wants to abolish roaming altogether.

Member States should bear in mind what the intention of the original proposal was, European Commissioner Andrus Ansip said in a speech. “I cannot support the very narrow limit of the European Council’s response to people’s demands to abolish roaming charges. It is a joke. We must certainly go further and remember our goal: to abolish roaming charges and not just the reduction of it.”

At the beginning of March it became clear that the European Parliament also did not see the point of the current proposal from the member states to allow 5MB per day of roaming at a local rate. Now that the European Commission also clearly endorses this position, the proposal from the Member States does not seem to receive sufficient support in European politics. European politicians and the member states are still negotiating the proposals.

The Commission also wants to have strong net neutrality in the final directive. Ansip thus repeats his earlier position. He also calls on the Member States to align the rules for auctioning frequencies. This is necessary for the upcoming technologies that will form 5G: much more spectrum is needed for this, but if providers have to buy it separately in all Member States according to all kinds of their own rules, it is a long and expensive process that, according to Ansip, would increase the opportunity to innovate. to obstruct.