The European Parliament (EP) by the end of 2015 approved the abolition of roaming fees for European Union member states; while also passing legislation on neutrality of internet networks. This means that transmission of all data through internet should be charged for equally, regardless of the source of the data, or their contents, the SITA newswire wrote.
From April 30 of this year, roaming fees will not be allowed to exceed five euro-cents for one minute of a call, two cents for a text message and five cents for data transmission of 1 megabyte. By June 15, 2017, these fees will cease to exist.
“All four mobile operators in Slovakia will have to gradually decrease their fees in the transitory period from April 2016 to June 2017, afterwards to a total cancellation of all fees connected with roaming use of the mobile network,” Smer MEP Monika Flašíková-Beňová told the TASR newswire.
This will mean for citizens, according to her, four-times lower rates for phone calls and data, in some cases. She finds the cancellation of fees to be another step in uniting Europe. She also deems it will make these services much cheaper for users.
Since 2007, the EC has gradually lowered the cap for fees that mobile operators charge for calls and data services outside their homelands. Originally, fees should have been abolished in December 2015 but member states have postponed the deadline several times.
