A roaming allowance is in store for the mobile subscribers in Europe. According to sources, European Union is discussing to offer subscribers 100 minutes of incoming and outgoing calls, 50 text messages and 100MB of data while travelling within Europe at domestic rates every year. The mobile operators can begin applying surcharges, once this bundle is used up.
This is subsequent to European Parliament’s move to abolish roaming charges. Ending roaming charges have been a priority of European Commission, which first proposed major reforms to telecoms market in 2013. Abolishing roaming charges can boost economy and benefit customers, according to European Commission.
In recent years, the roaming charges are coming down, but mobile operators have lobbied against banning them completely. They argue that they need to charge for roaming to cover the cost of using space on rival networks.
As of the reports in March 2015, European Union’s roaming fees could remain until 2018, as the member states reported in favor of the delay. Prior to this decision, European Parliament had earlier voted to abolish roaming charges by the end of 2015.
