European leaders have agreed to extend roaming across the European Union until 2032, meaning that consumers will be able to use the internet, make calls and send text messages at no extra cost.

The European Council approved the regulations passed by the European Parliament in December 2021, allowing the rules on roaming to be extended beyond 30 June 2022, when they were due to expire.

It means that mobile users cannot be charged extra for texts, calls, and the internet throughout the EU’s 27 member states at no extra cost, although the regulation does allow mobile providers to adjust their prices to make it sustainable.

A ‘fair use’ policy also remains in place to prevent users from ‘permanently roaming’ and taking a cheaper contract in one country but using it exclusively in a more expensive one.

What does ‘free roaming’ mean?

Before the European Union reformed the law back in 2017, consumers going to any other European country often had to pay (in some cases huge) extra costs to use their mobile phones. Especially when it came to downloading data.

However, a change to the law almost five years ago means that mobile customers can roam freely throughout Europe and use their mobile phones without incurring any extra changes for making calls, sending texts, or using data (some monthly limits do apply to the use of data, but in general, these limits are far in excess of what the average user would need).

Because the policy has been so popular it’s understandable to think this has always been the case but it’s still a relatively new law.

Only SIM cards registered with EU mobile providers are eligible for free roaming.

 

Source: Euronews.com