The European Commission has looked into the subject of mobile data roaming within the EU. It extends for 10 years the possibility offered to travelers to use their usual package in Europe and promises them improvements.
The start of the summer holidays marks the start of massive departures to various holiday resorts, in France or a little further afield. This raises the question of connection to mobile networks abroad, ie roaming. Very expensive until 2017, it has benefited for five years from a regulation put in place by the European Union, which allows its citizens to continue to use their local plan in other member countries. As this regulation expires, the European Commission has announced the entry into force of its new version on 1 July.
Concretely, from this date, it is a roaming scheme valid for the next ten years – until 2032 – which is being put in place. It still provides access to calls, SMS and internet connection at no additional cost within the limit of the usual package, with a cap on communications beyond that. The rates are clear: a maximum of €0.022/minute for calls until 2024, then €0.019/minute from 2025; €0.004/SMS until 2024 and €0.003/SMS from 2025; €2/GB of data in 2022, €1.8/GB maximum in 2023, €1.55/GB in 2024 and €1.3/GB from 2025. Decreasing prices, therefore, to be expected in the event of package overrun.
More transparency
The Commission stresses that various advantages flow from this new agreement on roaming, starting with a more purely quantitative guarantee, but also a qualitative one. “Consumers will now be able to enjoy the same quality of mobile Internet abroad as they enjoy at home. Operators providing mobile services should ensure that consumers have access to 4G networks, and even to networks more advanced 5G, if these are available where they are going”she says.
It also specifies that in the event of travel, the user will be warned during any connection to a non-terrestrial network (satellite network on board an aircraft, for example) that his connection will be interrupted automatically in the event of exceeding the package greater than “50 euros or another predefined limit”.
Finally, the emergency number 112 will be highlighted to travellers: “By June 2023, operators should send automatic messages to their subscribers who travel abroad to inform them of other means available to reach emergency services, for example real-time text services or apps”.