Free roaming within the European Union is a step closer today, after the European parliament voted in favor of laws that would abolish roaming fees between EU member states, as part of a package of telecom reforms. The package, originally proposed by EU lawmaker Neelie Kroes, moves Europe closer to a single market for mobile communication, especially with the recent arrival of 4G LTE roaming agreements between European carriers.
Should it pass muster with ministers from member nations, Europeans can look forward to roaming charges becoming a thing of the past. GigaOm reports that after clearing this final hurdle, European roaming fees could be eliminated by the end of 2015. It's worth remembering, however, that this would only affect subscribers to European mobile networks, not those from outside the EU roaming within Europe.
The EU telecoms package also included strong protections for net neutrality, making it illegal for network providers to block or impose speed restrictions on data based on the sender or recipient. It's a major victory for tech firms in Europe considering the recent setbacks faced by net neutrality in the U.S.
Read more
EU votes to end mobile roaming charges in 2017
The EU has approved a plan that will end data roaming charges throughout its member countries, with the ban coming into effect in June 2017.
Europe agrees on roaming scrapping and net neutrality rules
Europe has agreed on scrapping roaming charges across the continent by 2017, as well as new net neutrality rules to better protect both consumers ans businesses.
This summer European roaming charges will be cut in half
The European Commission has announced that charges to roam within Europe will fall by as much as 50 percent this summer. The EC is imposing yet another limit on mobile operators, further reducing the caps from July 1 to pave the way for removing roaming charges altogether by 2016. Currently, calls within the EU are capped at 24 euro cents per minute but will fall to 19 cents per minute...
EE in the UK to roll out reduced EU roaming charges from July 1st
Good news for UK BlackBerry users that are on the EE network. From July 1st if you travel into Europe your roaming bills are going to be a wee bit cheaper! Roaming charges have traditionally been ridiculously high in all parts of the world but thanks to the European Union working towards reducing the costs for travellers we are now making some real progress. From 1st July the new EE...