After a decade of negotiations, the EU has cleared the last hurdle toward abolishing roaming fees across Europe.
Negotiators from the European Parliament, Commission and Council on Tuesday agreed on price caps for the amount that carriers will pay one another when their customers travel abroad.
The agreement was the final step that needed to take place before carriers can begin scrapping roaming fees across the EU. As of June 15, European mobile customers will no longer have to pay any extra for calls, texts and data when they travel to other countries within the EU, as long as they stay within their contract limits.
The EU has been slashing the cost of using of using phones abroad since 2007 and promising to get rid of roaming fees since 2013. Mobile users across the bloc have eagerly anticipated the plan, which the EU is calling “roam like at home” to come into effect.
The rules only benefit customers who normally live in or have stable links to a member state, and carry a SIM card tied a local carrier. This means travelers from outside the EU cannot buy a SIM card in one country and use it to roam freely as they travel across Europe. There is no official registration needed to take advantage of “roam like at home,” but networks may ask consumers to show proof of residency, employment or study.
