The public consultation took place from 19 June to 11 September 2020. The objective of the consultation was to gather information for the Impact Assessment of a Commission legislative proposal for the review of the Roaming Regulation. It specifically aimed to collect views on retail and wholesale roaming services and on the impact of prolonging these rules. This summary report takes stock of the contributions and presents preliminary trends that emerge from them, focusing on the quantitative aspects of the consultation responses.
The Commission intends to outsource the organisation of the 15th, 16th and of the 17th Seminars for national judges, which are expected to take place in December 2021, 2022 and 2023 (the dates being indicative and subject to change depending on external circumstances, such as the COVID-19 epidemic). The one day and a half seminars are addressed to national judges, specialised in Electronic Communications Law, 2 per EU Member State. The seminars should also be attended by representatives of the National Regulatory Authorities of the EU Member States.
The Roaming Regulation established the Roam-Like-At-Home principle that mandated the end of retail roaming charges within the European Economic Area as from 15 June 2017 while ensuring sustainability of the provision of roaming services.
The purpose of this call for tenders is to carry out a report to perform analysis of telecom markets in Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) by identifying all mobile operators active in the region and examining actual retail roaming prices for services they offer to their customers (study reference: SMART 2019/0008).
On 29 November 2019, the Commission published the first full review of the roaming market, showing that travellers across the EU have benefitted a lot from the end of roaming charges in June 2017.
The Commission has published today the first full review of the roaming market, showing that travellers across the EU have benefitted a lot from the end of roaming charges in June 2017. The use of mobile data while travelling in the EU has increased tenfold compared to the year before roam-like-at-home, with a peak of 12 times higher use of mobile data abroad during the holiday period.
Today the Commission publishes an external study assessing technological and other market developments which could impact competition in wholesale and/or retail roaming markets over the medium term. The results will be one of the various inputs taken into consideration by the Commission in preparation of the review of the maximum wholesale roaming charges.
Roaming charges for all EU travellers ended on 15 June 2017. Dismantling additional charges for travellers who call,
send messages or surf the internet on their mobile devices while abroad, has been one of the biggest success stories of
the European Union.
From 1 July, citizens and businesses in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia will pay less while using their mobile phones when they are roaming within the region. Consumers will see a substantial reduction of their roaming charges within the region, with calls becoming up to eight times cheaper and costs for data dropping on average from €3/MB to €0.20/MB. The new regional roaming agreement is a first step towards the introduction of “roam like at home” within the region, with further reductions of roaming charges expected as of 1 January 2020.
