Surcharges on calls, SMS and data from the internet will be abolished. However, in cases where abuses are verified, operators may charge a “small fee”

The European Parliament adopted on Tuesday, the new rules to end roaming charges in the European Union from June 15, 2017.

The surcharges apply to customers by operators for using a mobile phone in another EU country “to make calls, send SMS or access the Internet will be abolished”, however, with the possibility of “roaming service providers” could apply a ” policy reasonable use ‘to prevent misuse.

According to the statement of the European Parliament, the new regulation allows operators to create “conditions to prevent permanent roaming or abnormal or misuse of wholesale roaming access for other purposes other than the provision of regulated services to roaming customers of roaming providers while traveling periodically in the Union “.

In cases where abuses are verified, operators may charge a “small fee” that “can not exceed the ceiling for wholesale charges that operators pay for the use of the networks of other EU countries.”

The limits of what is considered reasonable shall be set at December 15, 2016.

Lower prices since 2016

Despite the roaming only end in June 2017, the prices that operators can charge more for the use of services abroad will already download from next year.

From April 30, 2016, “the maximum level will be 0.05 euros per minute for calls, SMS 0.02 euros and 0.05 per megabyte of data,” taking into account the ceiling on tariffs. The European Parliament also states that “in the case of incoming calls, the maximum surcharge shall be the weighted average maximum mobile termination rates in the EU and will be fixed by the Commission by the end of 2015.”

With regard to Internet access, the European Parliament stipulated that operators have to “deal fairly” access to the internet and are prohibited from abrandas or block content, applications or competing services.

The locks are only allowed in specific situations as to “fight cyber attacks, solving an exceptional or temporary congestion or comply with court decisions. The new regulation also stipulates that Internet service providers will have to inform consumers on speed contract that can effectively offer (the commonly available speed can be understood as the speed of access to the service with which, most of the time , an end user can tell). ”

“It will only harm consumers”

The Portuguese Association of Electronic Communications Operators (APRITEL) has come to defend the abolition of roaming charges will harm the Portuguese consumer in favor of Northern Europe.

“Typically travel more and have higher consumption profiles and, therefore, with the introduction of the new measures, the countries with the highest influx of tourists, as in the case of Portugal, should expect a sharp increase in traffic held by foreign clients in territory national “, he argues in a statement.
“The increase in traffic will be without Portuguese operators have the possibility to recover the full costs associated with both the occupation of their network, such as the investment needs to meet the increased demand.”

And therefore, “there is a risk that these measures cause a rebalancing of domestic prices, with economic welfare transfer of most consumers to the relative minority who travels and uses roaming services”, still stands.

“The increase in traffic will be without Portuguese operators have the possibility to recover the full costs associated with both the occupation of their network, such as the investment needs to meet the increased demand.”

In addition, the association believes that the prices of roaming services have been steadily going down for several years, at the end of the payment “would generate distortions with negative impact, particularly on the diversity, quality and price levels in the provision of domestic services that are used and valued by the general population.”

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