European Commission in U-turn on limit to roaming charges

The European Commission has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over proposals to impose caps on free mobile phone roaming across the EU.

The commission was earlier this week accused of bowing to the will of telecoms companies by rowing back on plans to scrap roaming charges.

Under proposals which have been years in the planning, the charges are to be scrapped across the union in June of next year. However, on Monday the commission published a draft “fair usage policy” which it said was designed to stop abuse of the system.

The policy would have allowed phone users no more than 90 days of free roaming per year and would have forced consumers to connect to their roaming provider’s home network at least once every 30 days.

The commission claimed the caps were designed to stop permanent roaming which would allow a person buy a SIM card in a country where prices are cheaper and use it full-time in their home market.

New proposal

But in a statement released on Friday morning, the commission said that "in light of the initial feed-back received" its president Jean Claude Juncker had instructed the text be withdrawn and new proposal drawn up.

“For more than a decade, the Commission has been working hard to reduce roaming charges imposed on European travellers. Indeed, since 2007 roaming prices have decreased by more than 90 per cent for calls, text messages and data,” it said.

"When the European Parliament and the Council agreed to the Commission's proposal to abolish roaming charges, they're asked the Commission to define measures to prevent roaming services from being used for other reasons than periodic travelling (so-called "fair use policy"). A new proposal will be presented soon."