EU agrees to end roaming charges in 2017

The European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission agreed on new rules on Tuesday regarding roaming charges as of June 2017 and safeguarding open Internet access in the EU.

The provisional agreement still had to be confirmed by member states.

Under the agreement, roaming surcharges associated with cellular telephones in the EU would be abolished as of June 2017. However, cellular telephone service providers would be able to apply a "fair use policy" to prevent the abuse of roaming use, including using roaming services for purposes other than periodic travel.

The EU also said safeguards would be introduced to address the recovery of costs by operators.

With regard to Internet rules, the first in the EU, operators would have to treat all network traffic equally when providing Internet services.

However, service providers would be able to use traffic management measures. Blocking or throttling would be allowed only in a limited number of circumstances, for instance, to counter cyber attacks and prevent traffic congestion.

Agreements on services requiring a specific level of quality would be allowed, but operators would have to ensure the general quality of Internet access.

"Both are essential for consumers and businesses in today's European digital economy and society. We will build on these important foundations in our forthcoming review of the EU's telecoms legislation," said Gunther Oettinger, EU Commissioner for the digital economy and society. Endit