EU may end all roaming charges

[wco81]

So another milestone, not necessarily the last, for EU-wide free roaming.

EU agrees on wholesale roaming charges on Feb 1, 2017:

'Roam like at home'

"This decision is the final step in a process that started 10 years ago," said Dr Emmanuel Mallia, the Maltese Minister for Competitiveness and Digital, Maritime and Services Economy.

"From next summer, wherever they are travelling in Europe, citizens will be able to make calls, send texts, surf and stay connected. Roam like at home is now a reality."

Under the agreement, the wholesale charge for data will drop from the current cap of 50 euros (£43) per gigabyte (gb) to 7.7 euros (£6.60) per gb on 15 June.

The price will drop again on 1 January every year until January 2022 when it will be 2.5 euros (£2) per gb.

Calls will fall from 0.05 euros (4p) per minute to 0.032 euros (3p) on 15 June, and text messages will go down from 0.02 euros (2p) to 0.01 euros (1p) per message.

The charges will be reviewed every two years and new caps proposed if necessary. The first report is due out at the end of 2019.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38825154

But it still has to be voted on by the EU Parliament and member states.

Yet they're talking about RLAH from June 15, 2017 on. So less than 3 months away I didn't see any other updates since Feb 1 when this agreement on wholesale prices was announced.

All these bodies are going to ratify it and then the carriers are going to be able to do RLAH marketing in less than 3 months?

EU just moves at a glacial pace.

One wrinkle to all this is that UK citizens may get RLAH in the EU after June 15 but depending on how they negotiate withdrawal, by 2019 they may no longer have RLAH rights.