EU scraps time limit for free roaming

The EU Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, unveiled the new draft in Brussels on Monday, saying it would no longer include the 90-day limit on free mobile roaming - instead, it would include other checks to curb abuse.

"We will not put any kind of limits on duration, or how many days (travelers) can enjoy no roaming surcharges, but we decided to put some clear safeguards on residency," Ansip told a news conference.

The Commission's original proposal for free roaming across the 28-nation bloc was to allow consumers to roam for up to 90 days per year and for a maximum of 30 consecutive days, while paying only their domestic prices.

Consumer groups were outraged by the limit and argued that free roaming should mean exactly that, without conditions and caveats.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker abruptly ordered the previous proposal to be redrafted two weeks ago, to make it more consumer-friendly as the EU executive seeks to shore up public support for the EU.

'Fair use'

When the original plan was unveiled by the Commission earlier this month, critics said the EU executive had caved in to the powerful telecoms companies for whom roaming charges have long been a lucrative source of extra income.

Instead of time limits, the Commission's revised proposal now allows operators to crack down on people whose phone usage abroad "significantly" outweighs their domestic calls. This means they will be able to check consumers' usage patterns to ensure they do not abuse the system by buying a cheap SIM card in one EU country and using it permanently elsewhere.

"We want to protect both sides," Ansip said.

If a person uses their phone a lot more abroad than at home, or if a SIM card is largely inactive at home, operators will be able to apply roaming surcharges, the Commission's new plan proposes.

Similarly, if a customer uses multiple SIM cards when travelling, then operators would be able to charge for roaming. Operators would, however, have to inform users before charging them, and consumers would be allowed to challenge them.

The level of those surcharges is currently being debated by the European Parliament and member states, with a final agreement expected early next year.

Such surcharges would not apply to travelers using SIM cards from countries in which they reside or with which they have a "stable link", which could include work commuters, expats frequently in their home country, or students on an exchange program.

Ten years on, action at last... or soonish, anyway

The Commission has long been campaigning to cap roaming charges, forcing them down by some 90 percent since 2007. But phone companies have organized fierce resistance, claiming there were big discrepancies in pricing across the EU.

European telecoms' lobby groups ETNO and GSMA said Wednesday they would thoroughly analyze the new proposal, and provide feedback before the draft would go to the EU's 28 national regulators for negotiation. The Commission said it expected the plan to be implemented by June 15 next year, as originally planned.

uhe/nz (Reuters, AFP, dpa)