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Data roaming charges to end in EU within two years

2015-06-30 20:41:18

Phones

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.

The agreement is the culmination of years of campaigning to cut roaming charges

and to define the EU nations' approach to regulating internet traffic -

particularly in light of the US adoption of net-neutrality rules.

It largely follows proposals put forward in March this year, which analysts

said were a weaker version of what European regulators had originally promised.

But it will enshrine the principle of net neutrality, which stops internet

service providers (ISPs) favouring some internet traffic, in European law for

the first time.

However, as mooted in March, there will be exceptions to those rules.

ISPs will be able to favour services that require high-quality internet

connections, such as internet TVs, as long as they do not impinge on the

overall quality of internet traffic.

The commission said they would also be able to throttle traffic if it was in

the public interest to do so.

For example, to combat the proliferation of images of child sexual abuse or a

terrorist attack.

Media caption

Net neutrality: What does it mean?

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."

Renata Avila, global campaign manager at the World Wide Web Foundation added:

"Despite claiming to protect net neutrality, the deal agreed by the Commission,

Parliament and Council has decided to allow 'specialised services', but has

then failed to define what is meant by this, leaving the door open for a

two-tier internet... specialised services should be tightly defined and seen as

the exception, not the rule."

However, Gunther Oettinger, the commissioner for the digital economy and

society, defended the net-neutrality proposals as a "pragmatic" approach.