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Commission scraps plan to impose time, usage limits on customers using mobile services abroad.
The European Commission on Wednesday issued a new draft fair usage policy (FUP) designed to prevent the abuse of free EU-wide roaming when it comes into force next year.
This is Brussels’ second attempt at an FUP. The first attempt, unveiled earlier this month, attracted criticism for proposing to restrict free roaming to 90 days per year, and to insist that users connect to their domestic mobile network at least once every 30 days. The document was withdrawn just days after its publication.
"Today’s draft rules ensure we can end roaming charges as of 15 June 2017 for all people who travel periodically in the EU, while ensuring that operators have the tools to guard against abuse of the rules," said Günther Oettinger, the EU’s digital economy and society commissioner, in a statement.
Under the new proposals, there will be no limits in terms of time or volume of usage when it comes to free roaming in the EU.
Instead, operators will have certain criteria they can use in order to judge whether the free roaming rules are being abused.
For instance, if a customer uses their SIM card almost exclusively for roaming rather than domestic use, it could constitute abuse.
Similarly, if a SIM card remains inactive, except when its owner is roaming, this could also violate the FUP.
A customer could also land in hot water if they subscribe to and sequentially use multiple SIM cards while roaming.
If all these criteria are met, then an operator will have permission to impose surcharges of €0.04 per minute for voice calls, €0.01 per SMS message, €0.0085 per megabyte of data. These surcharges can also be applied if an operator can prove that providing free roaming is putting their domestic charging model at risk.
Complaints procedures must be put in place by operators in the case of disagreements. If disputes persist, the customer will be able to lodge a complaint with their country’s telco regulator.
"[The EU] parliament and council agreed on our proposal to end roaming charges for travellers in the EU. Together we need to ensure low prices for users all across Europe, to make full use of new mobile services. European consumers would not accept it otherwise," said Andrus Ansip, the EU’s vice president for the digital single market.
