Brussels, 15/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted a proposal setting maximum wholesale roaming charges. This move will go hand-in-hand with the removal of retail roaming charges which will take effect in one year's time, to the day.
Regulation 2015/2120 introduced the abolition of retail roaming charges in the EU from 15 June 2017. It also required the Commission to bring forward new legislative proposals to reduce the wholesale prices that currently apply. The wholesale roaming market corresponds to the prices that operators charge each other for the use of their networks. The new proposal on regulation 531/2012 sets caps of €0.04/min for calls, €0.01 per text message and €0.0085/MB for data. These caps will apply from June 2017 and will remain unchanged until 30 June 2022. The Commission deliver a report every two years from 2017.
“In a year from now, we'll say goodbye to roaming charges. Our ambition is to abolish unjustified geo-blocking on the same occasion. We also want the cross-border portability of content to be a reality in 2017 so that Europeans can travel with their films, music, sports broadcasts, e-books across the EU. This will clearly be a triple win for European consumers”, said Commissioner Andrus Ansip. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)