Europe to Drop Roaming Charges by 2017

The European Union comes to a preliminary deal to drop mobile roaming charges across all the states members of the Union by June 2017. Previously, the European Parliament voted to cut roaming fees by the end of 2015. However, the European Council decided to keep them in place until the end of 2018. Now, the European lawmakers have apparently agreed on a middle way for the mid 2017.

By next summer, roaming charges will also be significantly reduced, with calls capped at five cents per minute, data roaming fees capped at five cents per megabyte, and SMS capped at two cents per text.

The deal was agreed late last Tuesday night. It marks the culmination of negotiations over several years between the European Parliament, Council, and Commission. The agreed package will be sent for confirmation to representatives of all the 28 European member states.

According to France-Press news agency, the European Union would put an end to charges on mobile roaming, starting in June 2017. The deal also includes first net neutrality regulations for the Union.

Beginning April 30 2016, European telecom service providers will drop their rates for calls made within all 28 countries of the EU, megabyte of data accessed, and text messages. These new rules aim to make the borders of the EU's member states more transparent by encouraging communication and interaction between European Union citizens. Now, people living in the Union will be able to use their mobile devices from country to country across Europe without having to worry about incurring fees.

The deal also includes regulations on net neutrality that Internet providers must respect. They should regard all traffic equally and provide open Internet access. The only exceptions to this law are acceptable in the event of a cyber-attack and for "special services" such as ensuring a better internet quality, for instance, for a surgeon in an operating room. For special applications such as automatic-driving, telesurgery, high-definition videoconferencing, or IPTV, the open Internet cannot ensure the required quality of service. 

Services with enhanced quality are vital for encouraging online innovation in Europe and for European start-ups. However, this kind of services will come on top of the open Internet access, instead of being sold as a substitute of it.

The European Union is looking forward to create the Telecoms Single Market, and these negotiations are parts of the initiatives. One is for the single telecoms market, which was set out back in the year 2013 --aiming to reduce market fragmentation, foster more digital jobs, and boost the region's global competitiveness.

All the European content and service providers will offer their packet of services via open and high-quality Internet and every European citizen will be able to have access to the open Internet in Europe. More innovative services that will emerge in the future will be developed as long as they do not affect the quality and availability of the open Internet.

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