Roaming charges have now been officially abolished

A majority of 685 Members of the European Parliament have voted to ban mobile roaming fees in the EU, meaning Brits will pay the same for calls, texts and data as they do at home.

In June 15 2017 the charges will be scrapped across the European Union, and you will be charged the same to make calls, send text messages and use data as if you were at home.

But the European Parliament has finally approved rules that will bring an end to the confusing mobile roaming charges within the EU. Those charges are now set at €0.19 per minute for outgoing calls, €0.05 for incoming calls, €0.06 per text, and €0.20 per megabyte of data.

The new rules aim to prevent consumers receiving huge bills after downloading films or other data while travelling in Europe.

In their joint letter (3-page / 95KB PDF), the companies had warned in particular that the net neutrality proposals would create internet “fast lanes” where companies who could afford it could pay internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver their content to internet users more efficiently.

The European Parliament voted against all proposed net neutrality amendments to a bill on the European single market for electronic communications.

“This is the culmination of hard work by the Commission, and in particular by former Vice-Presidents Viviane Reding and Neelie Kroes, to tackle high roaming charges”.

“Today’s achievement is a first step towards a Telecoms Single Market.

However, it decided not to decide”, said Maryant Fernandez Perez, advocacy manager for campaign group European Digital Rights (EDRi).

This means that the new rules will become law, replacing existing network neutrality laws in member states of the EU.

There have been a number of cases when mobile users have been landed with bills for hundreds of euros or pounds. If all Internet traffic is instead treated the same, the opponents say that all clients will have an equal opportunity to stay competitive, and this better benefits their customers in the long run.

Three successive legislations have helped reduce the maximum fees telecommunications firms may charge customers by more than 90 percent already.