Europe is one step closer to ending mobile phone roaming charges throughout the continent, after the European Parliament agreed on new rules to forbid them once and for all. According to the deal, agreed to last night in the final days of Latvia's European Union Council presidency, roaming charges as a whole in the region will be scrapped in the next two years, with the agreement also -- surprisingly -- including stricter net neutrality rules that would apply across the continent.
Under the agreement, roaming charges in the EU will no longer exist as of June 15, 2017, with customers charged the same to make and receive calls, texts, and go online regardless of where they are in the EU, albeit with a "fair use" limitation. While there are technical hurdles to overcome, the European Commission is said to be prepared to deal with any major issues to make sure the rules are implemented on that date.
Even though mobile users will have to wait two years, there will still be some roaming price cuts on the horizon. From April 2016, calls will cost up to €0.05 per minute to make, texts will cost €0.02, and data will €0.05 per megabyte, with the overall cost down 75 percent compared to current roaming price caps.
