EU policy makers to revisit 'fair use' rules on roaming charges

Last week the Commission set out proposals to define the circumstances in which MNOs could continue to apply roaming charges on customers after EU rules banning such charges take effect in June 2017.

Since 30 April this year mobile operators have been prohibited from charging consumers more than €0.05 per minute for calls, €0.02 for text messages and €0.05 per megabyte for data above domestic prices when they use their phones abroad within the EU. From 15 June 2017 those additional charges will be prohibited except where consumers exceed a "fair use" cap on the use of mobile services abroad.

The precise detail of the 'fair use' cap has still to be finalised, but last week the European Commission set out plans that would, if introduced, have allowed MNOs to apply roaming charges if customers used mobile services abroad within the EU more than 90 days in a year or for more than 30 days in a row. Under those plans, where the fair use cap was exceeded MNOs would have been able to apply roaming charges up to the levels set under the existing threshold restrictions.

At the time, EU commissioners Andrus Ansip and Günther Oettinger said EU consumers only spend 12 days each a year on average travelling elsewhere within the trading bloc. Therefore roaming charges would "disappear for the vast majority" of EU citizens, they said.

However, the Commission subsequently released a statement in which it said that it was withdrawing its proposals following "initial feedback received", at the instruction of Commission president Jean Claude Juncker. It said new proposals would be worked on instead and "presented soon".

The Commission is obliged to define the details of the fair use limit under the terms of existing EU rules on roaming charges.

The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) said: "We believe that the fair use clause is essential to the proper functioning of European telecom markets. Any threshold should be fully consistent with the definition of periodic travelling as stated in the Regulation. The 90-days threshold is well beyond such definition. The fair use clause constitutes a safeguard to avoid abuses, which is also in the interest of consumers. Roaming is abolished as from June 2017, but fair use measures are necessary and required by the Regulation itself."