So they announced an agreement today to end roaming charges by June 2017. Who knows after all the previous false starts whether this will stick?
Quote:
Data roaming charges are set to be abolished within the European Union by June 2017, it has been announced.
The ban will be preceded by a 14-month interim period, in which companies can still add surcharges - but at a reduced rate.
A deal, reached on Tuesday, also sets out rules requiring telecom operators to treat most internet traffic equally.
But the net neutrality rules will allow firms to favour some services, such as internet TVs.
From April 2016, telecoms operators will be able to add a surcharge of no more than:
€0.05 (3.5p) extra per minute for calls
€0.02 extra per SMS sent
€0.05 extra per megabyte of data used
The cap would make roaming within the EU 75% cheaper during the interim period, the European Commission said.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33325031
So the timeline is for member states to ratify these new rules, including the net neutrality (with exceptions) rules, by December of this year:
Quote:
The agreement will be presented to the EU's member states between July and December this year for formal adoption.
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) - the fourth largest grouping of MEPs in the European Parliament - has previously criticised regulators for trying to water down plans to end data roaming.
But it welcomed Tuesday's announcement.
The president of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt, said the "great roaming rip-off" was to be brought to an end.
The group blamed the delay in successfully negotiating the deal on member states, which have been accused of seeking to protect their national operators in the past.
But Marietje Schaake MEP, another member of the group, renewed the attack on the net-neutrality deal, saying: "The compromise reached now is a watered-down version of the strong ambitions of the European Parliament."
Gunther Oettinger, the commissioner for the digital economy and society, defended the net-neutrality proposals as a "pragmatic" approach.
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