Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

The European Commission, Parliament and Council have reached agreement on caps to wholesale roaming charges that will apply within the EU from 15 June.

The caps cover the fees that mobile operators pay to one another when customers use their phones abroad.

Wholesale charges for use of data will be capped at €7.70 per gigabyte from June. This cap will reduce each year to reach €2.50 in 2022, the Commission said.

The cap for calls will fall from €0.05 to €0.032 per minute, and the cost of text messages will be halved to €0.01.

EU telecoms providers cut consumer surcharges for roaming phone calls and data use in EU countries from 30 April 2016, and these charges will be completely abolished on 15 June, subject to a 'fair use' policy that the Commission will put in place. The Commission is now considering what the fair use cap might be.

Andrus Ansip, vice-president for the digital single market said: "This was the last piece of the puzzle. As of 15 June, Europeans will be able to travel in the EU without roaming charges. We have also made sure that operators can continue competing to provide the most attractive offers to their home markets. Today we deliver on our promise."

The European Parliament and the Council must now formally approve the agreement.

It emerged last year that the Commission may propose extra fees for users with unlimited deals or cut-off points after users have used a set amount of data, according to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times.

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