Could be expensive in the past: roaming in the EU
Photo: Arno Burgi / dpa
If the EU Commission gets it, consumers in Europe will continue to benefit from the elimination of roaming charges.
The commission proposed on Wednesday to extend the existing rules beyond the end of June 2022 for a further ten years.
At the same time, she would like to turn a few screws, at the expense of the mobile phone providers.
Since June 15, 2017, roaming charges have been waived in the 27 EU countries as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
This means that people can make calls, surf the Internet or write text messages with their mobile phones at the same cost as at home.
According to a new Eurostat survey, this regulation is very popular: The use of data roaming has increased 17-fold from summer 2016 to summer 2019.
However, according to the survey, EU citizens complain about some shortcomings.
A third of the respondents criticized the fact that they use the Internet at a slower pace than at home.
Network operators' roaming prices are expected to fall
According to the will of the EU Commission, that should change.
Her plan is to stipulate that telecommunications providers must also offer this standard - if possible - abroad to consumers who have concluded a mobile phone contract with 4G or 5G network quality in their home country.
Users in the EU country in which they are traveling should also be able to contact the emergency number free of charge and call service hotlines from airlines or insurance companies without fear of exploding bills.
In addition, the EU Commission proposes to further cap the prices that network operators charge each other for roaming.
Before the rules actually apply from mid-2022, the EU states and the European Parliament must agree on a common line.
Icon: The mirror
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