The European Union’s ambitious plans to scrap roaming charges for mobile phones users across the continent could become a reality, as it is preparing to implement the plan from October, according to The Telegraph.
Two member states who support the plans participated in high-level meetings with EU leaders at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.
A vote on implementing the measure is anticipated in mid-March, even though conversations of the measure have been postponed by Brussels’ bureaucracy, with expected implementation from October.
The new measure would offer any of the UK travellers to other member states with the same charges for calls, texts and data use as there in home country.
Originally suggested by the EC as an extension of current actions that have already reduced roaming charges, several industry and government insiders feared they would be impractical to implement.
The latest transformations would also include single national regulators being authorised to approve firms to operate services across the single market, similar to the existing regulatory procedure for web firms.
The European Commission’s call for ending roaming charges comes after a report revealing that around 25% of European citizens switch off their mobile devices when travelling aboard.
The report noted that nearly half of mobile users did not use internet while travelling, with 94% of them avoiding using services like Facebook and Twitter when in other an EU nation than their own.
