This’ll come in handy if you’re hitting the road soon.
A new European Union law came into effect on Thursday that abolishes roaming charges for people using mobile phones abroad. The new rules mean that European citizens traveling within the EU that call, text, and browse the internet on their mobile devices will be charged the same price they pay in their home country.
Prior to this, roaming charges were added to the cost of calls, SMS text messages, and web browsing when outside users traveled in the EU and had to connect to another cellular network. This, in turn, led to what amounted to notorious/exorbitant fees for relatively moderate data usage.
The European Commission offered the following statement:
“Each time a European citizen crossed an EU border, be it for holidays, work, studies or just for a day, they had to worry about using their mobile phones and a high phone bill from the roaming charges when they came home. The European Union is about bringing people together and making their lives easier. The end of roaming charges is a true European success story. Eliminating roaming charges is one of the greatest and most tangible successes of the EU.”
The EU has been negotiating with mobile networks for nearly 10 years to come to an agreement regarding the legislation, following repeated warnings from networks that the law could mean higher tariffs at home. That outcome appears to have been avoided, however.
It’s also been cited that some mobile carriers in certain EU countries have already raised their calling plan prices. It’s unknown as to whether this is to compensate for the lack of incoming roaming fees.
If you happen to be traveling through the European Union in the near term and have any feedback to offer about this, please let us know in the comments.