In the EU entered into force the law on the abolition of international roaming. Now the citizens travelling within the EU, can make calls, send SMS and use mobile Internet at the same prices as back home. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, called the day historic.
Thursday, 15 June 2017, the EU abolished roaming charges for subscribers of mobile operators.
“The European Union unites people and makes their life easier. The end of roaming charges is a real European success story. From now on, citizens who are traveling within the EU will be able to call, write and communicate using their mobile devices for the same price as in the home region. The elimination of roaming charges is one of the largest and most tangible success of the EU”, — the document says.
The new rules are not intended for “permanent roaming”, when a customer living in one country becomes a mobile subscriber in another country of the EU, where tariffs are lower.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that the day of abolition of roaming charges historic. He wrote about this in his Twitter. “Goodbye roaming! Tomorrow is a historic day, when roaming charges in EU will be history,” wrote Juncker.
Goodbye #roaming! Historic day tomorrow as roaming charges in the #EU will become a thing of the past. My statement: https://t.co/KPlcnul3Er pic.twitter.com/RLo0s9UL0o
— Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU) 14 Jun 2017
The European Union came to this decision about 10 years. The bill to abolish roaming charges the European Parliament approved on 28 October 2016. 25 April 2017, the EU Council confirmed the abolition of roaming for Europeans from the 15th of June 2017. As mentioned in the accompanying documents maximum margin that the local mobile operators will be able to present foreign mobile companies for servicing their clients in their territory within the EU, from 15 June will not exceed €0,032 per minute and €0.01 per SMS. The price for using mobile Internet abroad (within the EU) will gradually decline — from €7,7 per 1 GB this year to €2.5 per 1 GB in 2022.
According to experts, the abolition of roaming charges in the EU may lead to growth of tariffs for subscribers from the Russian Federation. European operators, losing thereby a portion of the proceeds will strive to compensate for them by increasing inter-operator tariffs for operators from other countries (including Russia) for servicing their subscribers on their networks. This, in turn, can cause the growth of prices for end users due to the increase in the cost of this service, told analysts.
