EU Parliament approves roaming ban

The European Parliament has approved a regulation abolishing roaming fees in the EU, a press release read. A complete ban on roaming charges for using mobile phones abroad in the EU will take effect in June 2017 and clear rules on the right to internet access will become law following the parliament's final approval of the new telecoms package. "Thanks to this agreement, Europe will also become the only region in the world which legally guarantees open internet and net neutrality. The principle of net neutrality will be applied directly in the 28 member states. It also ensures that we will not have a two-speed internet," said the rapporteur, Pilar del Castillo (EPP, ES), in the debate before the vote. Roaming fees for calling, sending text messages and using mobile internet abroad in the EU (and in EEA countries) will be banned from 15 June 2017. From 30 April 2016 roaming surcharges (added to the price paid at home) must not exceed:

• €0.05 per minute for outgoing voice calls
• €0.02 for text messages (SMS), or
• €0.05 per megabyte of mobile internet use.

The cap on charges for incoming voice calls will be determined later this year and is expected to be considerably lower than for outgoing calls, the Parliament press office reported. What is more, EU members agreed on so-called net neutrality rules, which will forbid internet providers from blocking or slowing down access to particular content, services and applications. Firms would not be able to pay for prioritization of their traffic on the internet.