When traveling in the 28-nation bloc, mobile-phone users will pay the same price as at home as of June 15, 2017.
“This abolition of roaming surcharges has been long awaited by everybody,” said Pilar del Castillo, a Spanish member of parliament and rapporteur of today’s debate. “Thanks to this agreement, Europe will also become the only region in 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.”
The legislation also caps roaming fees as of April 30, 2016. Under this provision of the law, extra charges for roaming cannot exceed 0.05 euro a minute for voice calls, 0.02 euro for text messages and 0.05 euro a megabyte of mobile Internet use.
EU governments approved the package of legislation on October 1, making the Parliament’s endorsement on Tuesday the final step in a legislative procedure that started in 2013.