The abolition of retail roaming surcharges, now scheduled for 15
June 2017, will enable consumers to call text and use mobile data
for the same cost at home and while travelling in another EU
country. and transfer data across borders from another EU member
state for the same cost as at home.
“This is a great victory for European consumers”, said rapporteur
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, FI). “We can now celebrate the
fact that from 15 June on there will be no more roaming fees.
Users travelling in across Europe will be able to check emails,
use maps, upload photos on the social media, phone and text home
without extra cost.”
Parliament removed the final hurdle – wholesale price caps – by
endorsing an informal deal on them, already informally agreed
with the Council, by 549 votes to 27and 50 abstentions.
Background
The informal agreement between the
Parliament and Council on wholesale price caps defines
how much telecoms operators can charge each other for using their
networks to carry cross-border “roaming” calls. Wholesale roaming
prices indirectly affect consumers’ final bills.
Lower caps for data transfers would enable EU consumers to access
more more data such as audio-visual content when travelling from
a country to another. This could also open up markets for small
and virtual telecoms operators.
