According to a leaked piece of draft legislation seen by the Guardian, the European Commission will ban mobile phone networks from charging customers more when they use their mobile abroad, from as early as next year.
So-called roaming fees are very unpopular with mobile owners but much loved by network providers, who have been lobbying the Commission not to impose the ban, saying that it will cost them billions of pounds.
However, once the legislation goes through, networks will be left with little choice but to offer a flat rate to customers at home and abroad for calls, texts and internet connections across Europe.
Champion of the ban, Neelie Kroes, the Commission’s Vice President for digital affairs, is determined to end roaming fees, which have seen thousands of Europeans left with huge mobile bills on their return home from abroad.
Ms Kroes has described the hated charges as a “cash cow” for network providers and a “disproportionate irritant for travellers”. Her aim is to boost Europe’s digital competitiveness with proposals for a single telecoms market, which will be discussed next month. The plan would then have to be approved by the European parliament to be made law.
However, the networks are unlikely to back down without a fight and lobbyists from Vodafone, Orange and Telefónica are all putting forward arguments against the legislation, which will build on last year’s move by the Commission when it began forcing operators to cut roaming costs.
Despite this, many still charge customers extra, even when they are using a local network owned by the same company as their domestic network. As the Guardian points out, while Europeans cannot unknowingly run up a bill larger than €50 (£42) while abroad, roaming charges are still many times higher than domestic call costs and will remain so without further legislation.