When we travel in Europe , we use the roaming service that allows users to continue using their mobiles and devices while they are visiting another country. In 2017, the European Union (EU) agreed to end this service despite the fact that the agreement was to end definitively on June 30, 2022.
Finally, the European Commission has announced a new regulation in which free roaming is extended until 2032 , that is, users will be able to make calls or continue using the Internet when they are outside their country of origin and will not have to pay additional costs.
The European Council states in a statement that “the extension of the regulation will ensure that people can make phone calls , send text messages and surf the Internet while traveling to EU countries other than their own, without fear of suffering a terrible shock when they receive your operator’s invoice ” .
Higher quality for consumers
This new regulation will enter into force on July 1, 2022 and will introduce certain changes for operators.
The Commission indicated in the statement that consumers should have the same quality when they are traveling when they are at home, in addition, the roaming will not cause a reduction speed Internet and operators must inform users if there are certain factors that can affect the quality of service.
On the other hand, there are still certain cases in which an extra will continue to be charged , such as calling from a country where roaming is paid or making a call to customer service numbers, assistance services or companies for sure.
The regulation indicates that the service will stop automatically when the invoice reaches a cost of 50 euros or another predefined limit and the operators will be obliged to inform customers of the surcharges abroad .
Sustainability guarantee
This regulation establishes lower wholesale rates that add a certain limit . According to the European Commission “these are costs charged by local mobile operators in exchange for access to their networks” that allow customers to benefit from roaming services abroad.
These are the maximum prices that the European Union will set and that all operators must comply with:
€ 2 / GB in 2022, € 1.8 / GB in 2023, € 1.55 / GB in 2024, € 1.3 / GB in 2025, € 1.1 / GB in 2026 and € 1 / GB in 2027 in ahead.
For voice telephony: € 0.022 / min in 2022-2024 and € 0.019 / min from 2025 onwards.
SMS: € 0.004 / SMS in 2022-2024 and € 0.003 / SMS from 2025 onwards.
