Final stretch in the long race to eliminate roaming in the EU

The next June 15 is the date finally set for the elimination of the surcharge applied by telephone operators in the European Union when the user uses their services from another Member State. The pact reached in Brussels finally puts an end to a practice marked by exorbitant prices, especially for data traffic.

The announcement was made by Digital Single Market Commissioner Andrus Ansip, who described the agreement as the last piece of the puzzle.

This statement means that the approval still pending before the Council of Ministers and the plenary session of the European Parliament will be, in principle, a pure trite, thus bringing to a close a process that has dragged on for ten years.

The wholesale data fee will be reduced from 50 euros per Gb to 7.7 euros when the measure to end the overcharge for roaming mobile communications comes into force. Thereafter, a progressive reduction has been established to reach 6 euros per Gb in January 2018; 4.5 a year later and so on until 2022, when the rate will be 2.5 euros/Gb. For voice calls, the community block will be reduced from 0.05 to 0.032 euros/minute, while the cap for text messages will be 0.01 euros.

Companies will have to offer a roaming service at the same price as domestic communications to any customer who is a regular resident or demonstrates a link to the place where he or she contracts the line, even if they travel periodically to another Member State. Providers, for their part, may apply a "fair, reasonable and proportionate" control mechanism to detect possible abuse or misuse of the contracted service.

As a guarantee, the European Commission should also reassess and report every two years on the impact of the new roaming rules, to monitor that they are working or propose new tariff ceilings if necessary. The first of these reports shouldá be ready by December 15, 2019.